Delhi, 25 October (H.S.): The Congress party on Saturday leveled serious accusations against the government, alleging that the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) misused funds belonging to its 30 crore policyholders to benefit the Adani Group.

Citing media reports and internal documents, the party claimed that approximately ₹33,000 crore of public money was invested in Adani's companies and demanded a full investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).

In a statement, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh asserted that the investment was a systematic misuse of public saving. He proposed that, as a preliminary step, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should investigate how the LIC was allegedly forced to make these investments.

The allegations appear to stem from a Washington Post report that claimed Indian officials drafted a proposal in May 2025 to channel about $3.9 billion from the state-run insurer to Adani Group firms.Ramesh highlighted a specific incident on September 21, 2024, when LIC purportedly suffered a staggering loss of ₹7,850 crore within four hours of trading, following the indictment of Gautam Adani and seven associates in the United States.

The Congress leader also accused the government of refusing to forward a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) summons to the Adani conglomerate for nearly a year. He described the alleged activities—including partisan privatization of airports and ports, funneling contracts through diplomatic channels, and money laundering via shell companies—as components of a wider scam.

In response, the Life Insurance Corporation has vehemently refuted the allegations, dismissing the report as false, baseless and far from the truth. LIC stated that its investment decisions are made independently by its board after detailed due diligence and are not influenced by the government or any external body. The insurer explicitly denied that any plan to channel funds to the Adani Group, as alleged in the article, was ever prepared.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar