Opposition MPs, Barring TMC & NCP, Stopped During March to ED Office Over Adani Row

Leaders of several opposition parties were on Wednesday stopped by the police at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi as they took out a protest march from Parliament House to hand over a complaint to the Enforcement Directorate on the Adani issue.

As the opposition leaders were stopped from proceeding to the agency’s office, they returned to Parliament complex.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the police was not allowing the opposition MPs of around 18 parties to march in protest and present its case for a detailed investigation into the Adani issue. The police said the opposition MPs cannot march forward as Section 144 CrPC was imposed in the area.

“Opposition MPs of nearly 18 parties want to give a memorandum to the Enforcement Directorate on the Adani issue, but the government is not allowing us to march forward and the police have stopped us at Vijay Chowk,” Kharge told reporters.

The parties later emailed the letter to the ED Director S K Mishra. They urged the agency to initiate an investigation into the Adani Group over allegations of corrupt practices, including money laundering through shell companies.

The parties told the probe agency that “it cannot turn around and abdicate its jurisdiction”. The letter as signed by leaders of the Congress, CPI, CPI-M, JDU, SS (UBT), RJD, DMK, JMM, AAP, IUML, VCK, Kerala Congress and others.

During the march, Congress deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari told reporters, “We are 200 MPs of opposition parties and were seeking to march to ED office to present a memorandum for a probe into the Adani issue, but we were stopped forcibly by the police.”

“We are going back to Parliament and would stage a protest inside Parliament House,” he said, as several MPs returned to Parliament after the police did not allow them to march forward.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said “we will not be deterred from marching forward and will continue with our protest march”.

The protest march began at 12:30 pm from Parliament House and MPs from several opposition parties took part. The TMC and NCP, however, were not part of the opposition protest march.

The opposition has been demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Adani-Hindenburg issue and has been stalling proceedings of Parliament over their demand.

US short seller Hindenburg Research had alleged that the Adani group was “engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud”, and used offshore shell companies to inflate stock prices.

The group had denied the allegations, calling them “malicious”, “baseless” and a “calculated attack on India The Trinamool Congress earlier separately staged a protest in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament complex over the LPG price hike and demanded answers from the government.

TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay said they would not participate in the opposition march and would stage their own protest. TMC MPs raised slogans against the government over the LPG price hike and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should give them answers.

(With inputs from PTI)

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