After a United States federal judge formally dismissed criminal charges in a securities fraud case against billionaire Gautam Adani, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of compromising India’s interests and said that the country was “paying a huge price”.

In a social media post, Gandhi shared the screenshot of a media report on the US court approving the US Justice Department’s proposal to dismiss the charges against Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani.

“There is much more to this than meets the eye,” Gandhi wrote. He further added that a “compromised PM was forced to sell India’s interest”.

Before dismissing the case, Judge Nicholas Garaufis had asked prosecutors to explain why they wanted to drop it.

On Monday, the judge criticised senior US Justice Department official Trent McCotter’s conduct as “highly unusual” in the case. He remarked that the official decided to drop charges largely in collaboration with defense counsel and “seemingly without input from the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] and SEC [Securities Exchange Commission] agents”.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the main federal law enforcement agency in the US. The primary role of the Securities Exchange Commission is to enforce laws against market manipulation.

In a court filing on July 4, McCotter said the case was primarily foreign, hard to prove and not in line with the department’s current priorities.

Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and six others had been indicted in November 2024 in the final weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, New York.

US prosecutors had charged the billionaire with agreeing to bribe Indian government officials so that a subsidiary of his Adani Group could win approval to develop a solar energy plant. The prosecutors also alleged that the defendants made misleading statements about its anti-corruption practices while raising funds from US and international investors.

Gautam Adani had denied wrongdoing. In a social media post early on Tuesday, he said that he welcomed the “court’s decision with humility and deep respect for the judicial process”.

Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

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