Kejriwal's nephew arrested in PWD scam
AAP rejects charges
New Delhi, May 10 : The Anti-Corruption Branch on Thursday arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's nephew Vinay Bansal in an alleged PWD scam, sparking an angry reaction from the AAP which said it was part of the BJP's vendetta politics.
Vinay Bansal, the son of Kejriwal's late brother-in-law Surender Bansal, was a partner in a firm which was involved in the alleged scam worth over Rs 6 crore.
"We have arrested Vinay Bansal from his residence in Pitampura after he failed to give satisfactory replies to our queries about a firm - 'Mahadeo Impacts'," Special Commissioner of Police Arvind Deep told IANS.
The firm showed purchase of raw materials for the construction of a Public Works Department (PWD) drain.
"The ACB registered an FIR on May 8, 2017. We received a complaint that Surender Bansal got a tender below 46 per cent on behalf of a company, Renu Construction, on the estimated cost of Rs 4.9 lakh," Deep, who heads the ACB, said.
"The complaint also mentioned that the quality of products was not up to the mark. During the probe, it was found that iron and cement were bought from Mahadeo Impacts which was later found to be non-existent," he said.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia told the media here that for the last three years, the Delhi Police and the ACB are being used by the Lt Governor and the Central government for arresting AAP leaders.
The Delhi Police is "planning just one thing: How to make AAP people unhappy", he said.
Bansal was doing projects with the Delhi government even before the Kejriwal government. The current case is on a contract he won before the AAP government came to power, he added.
"This is part of the chain of arrests against AAP MLAs," Sisodia said, adding this will be exposed in the court.
"The good thing is that there's justice in this country and when cases go to court it goes against police and police is being asked why did you do it?"
Sisodia said IIT Roorkee had done a third party audit as per the terms of the project and submitted a report and the PWD had also said that the work was done well.
"After the complaint, the ACB got a separate inquiry conducted by Sri Ram Labs which also said that work was satisfactory," Sisodia said.
AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj rejected any corruption in the matter.
"There can be only two ways of corruption in PWD drain construction: the tender was rigged to favour of Chief Minister's relative or the payment was made for sub-standard work or incomplete work. In this case, nothing of this sort happened," he tweeted.
In May 2017, AAP rebel leader Kapil Mishra raised the issue following a whistleblower's revelations.
Surender Bansal, who ran a company that worked with the PWD for many years, died the same day Mishra raised the issue and filed the complaint.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Adani touts financial strength, shows can grow without external debt
New Delhi (PTI): Billionaire Gautam Adani's conglomerate on Monday touted its financial and credit details of its portfolio companies to investors, showcasing its robust profits and cash flows that can sustain growth without reliance on external debt.
The ports-to-energy conglomerate, which has been hit by an indictment in a US court against its founder chairman Gautam Adani and two other executives for allegedly bribing Indian official to secure solar power contracts, in a presentation to the investors highlighted its consistently expanding profits and cash flows, which over a period have led to lowering dependence on debt for its growth ambitions.
Equity now accounts for almost two third of its total asset creation, a stark contrast to five years ago. In the last six months, the group has invested close to Rs 75,227 crore, against a total debt increase of only Rs 16,882 crore.
A note was also shared with the investors, along with presentations.
Outlining the group's liquidity position, the note said, "Adani Portfolio companies have sufficient liquidity to cover all debt servicing requirements for at least 12 months. As of September 30, 2024, Adani Portfolio companies had a cash of Rs 53,024 crore, which was close to 21 per cent of its total gross debt outstanding".
This amount, it said, was sufficient to cover the next 28 months of debt servicing requirement.
GROWTH WITHOUT DEBT
In the past, the group has announced plans to invest over Rs 8 lakh crore (USD 100 billion) across portfolio companies in the next ten years.
The Fund Flows from Operations (FFO) or cash profits stood at Rs 58,908 crore for the last twelve months and is growing over 30 per cent for the past five years. On the basis of this, even after assuming no growth, the group will be able to invest Rs 5.9 lakh crore only from its internal cash accruals over the next ten years, leaving very little dependency on external debt.
Further, at the portfolio level, there is very low debt gearing of 2.46x -- which means it has massive headroom for debt, according to the presentation.
Other highlights from the presentation included EBITDA (earnings before interest tax and depreciation) for the last twelve months, which it said is highly stable and hence predictable due to its infrastructure projects, which grew by 17 per cent to Rs 83,440 crore.
Also, existing annual cash flows alone can pay the entire debt in 3 years.
Gross assets/investments increased by Rs 75,227 crore, against total debt increase of only Rs 16,882 crore. Asset base has now increased to Rs 5.5 lakh crore.
Average cost of borrowing at 8.2 per cent, lowest in the last 5 years, due to upgrade in ratings across group companies, it said.
Adani Group's long-term debt from domestic banks was Rs 94,400 crore. This stood against a cash balance of Rs 53,024 crore, most of which was parked with Indian banks.
Borrowings from global banks were 27 per cent of total debt.
