The US Justice Department has defended the decision to withdraw the bribery case against Gautam Adani. The department said that the matter pertains to India and there is a lack of evidence. The department has given this argument after the court sought a detailed reply.
New Delhi [भारत]July 6 (ANI): The US Justice Department has defended its move to drop the alleged criminal bribery case against Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani. Legal experts said the department filed the detailed reply after the court sought a more detailed explanation than the government’s initial request.
Legal experts explained the reason for the decision
Ryan Karanjawala, managing partner of Karanjawala & Co., while speaking to ANI, said, “Here, the Justice Department has said look, we think there is no genuine case made out for prosecution. All the crimes, even if they are alleged, are actually from outside India. Why spend our time, effort and energy on a case that we don’t think we are going to be successful in?”
Karanjawala further said, “As a result, and defendants also have rights. One of them is their ability to do business in a jurisdiction like the US. So all these factors were taken into account. And of course, they have importance. The rights of every defendant are important.”
The court had asked for a detailed answer
The US Justice Department said in its response that forcing prosecutors to explain their reasoning in detail could undermine their constitutional authority over prosecutorial decisions. Prosecutors say the alleged affair took place in India and it was not appropriate for US prosecutors to get involved.
“What happened here was that when the Justice Department first filed their application to withdraw the case and seek the court’s permission and consent, they filed a one-line application that basically said we do not want to use our resources on this case,” Karanjawala said.
Karanjawala said, “Now the judge, which was considered a bit unusual at the time, asked for more information from the Justice Department. So, this time they have not taken any risks. They have explained in a very direct and detailed manner all or most of the reasons on which they no longer want to prosecute.”
Adani’s lawyers had already raised these issues
Karanjawala said the defense team had previously raised jurisdictional and factual arguments with US authorities.
Karanjawala said, “The real thing is whether a case was made out or not? Adani’s lawyers had initially made all these points to the Justice Department.”
“It was deliberated upon, it took some time and then ultimately the Justice Department accepted the Adani Group’s argument that yes, it is not an appropriate case to prosecute and so they have gone to the court seeking permission to withdraw it.”
Problem of weak case and evidence
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) had argued in its response that the case was weak due to problems with the evidence. She further said that most of the alleged evidence was based in India, making US prosecution difficult.
The case against Gautam Adani and others alleges a bribery scheme involving solar energy contracts in India, which allegedly misled US investors. In May this year, the US Justice Department had moved to dismiss these allegations, following which the US Court for the Eastern District of New York had sought a response from the DoJ. With the US Justice Department’s position strengthened with this response, legal experts argue that judges will most likely support the DoJ’s stance. (ANI)
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