NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's main opposition Congress Party (ITC) has staged protest marches to the president's palace in the Indian capital and to the palaces of rulers in India's 27 state capitals to pressure the government to investigate Adani conglomerate owned by well-known Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's closest friends. Police obstructed the marches by placing barricades in the streets and arrested many of those who led the demonstrations.

The case began when the Hindenburg Foundation published a report on Jan. 25 that said the company was involved in India's biggest fraud and corruption, including manipulating stock prices, investing suspicious money across Mauritius, evading taxes, manipulating unpolluted energy certificates, violating international sanctions and doing business with North Korea.

Rise in the list of the world's richest people

Gautam Adani was ranked 609th in the list of the world's richest people with a net worth of $7 billion, but with the election of his good friend Narendra Modi as Prime Minister of India in May 2014, the situation was very different.

The Adani Group of Companies has grown impressively, leasing several airports and ports in India and abroad, including the Haifa port in Israel, obtaining exclusive rights to explore for coal and electricity production, some without observing official conditions, and obtaining large loans from Indian state banks and financial institutions.

Opposition rallied against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his friend, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani (Reuters)

Laws were sometimes manipulated in favor of the company, with contracts terminated and some competitors forced to cede projects to Adani, until he was dubbed the "King of Coal".

Adani shares rose in value and ranked second in the list of the world's richest people with a net worth of $121 billion.

The day after the Hindenburg Foundation published its report, the group's shares collapsed by 85%, losing $146 billion, and he personally lost $79 billion of his wealth and fell to 24th place.

Several Indian banks and government institutions have been affected, such as the State Bank of India and an Indian insurance company that has granted Adani large loans.

Indian institutions tasked with monitoring corporate and stock market manipulation, such as the Indian Council on Securities and Exchange (SEBI), have not investigated. As the scandal spread, a new $2.5 billion IPO was cancelled and Total Energy cancelled its contract with Adani to build a $50 billion white hydrogen project.

Opposition parties rise up

As soon as the Hindenberg report appeared, opposition parties demanded that the government make a statement and form a parliamentary and judicial committee to investigate, but the speaker of parliament deleted most of the statements of opposition deputies from the parliamentary debate records, and the government evaded making any statements about the company's corruption, and did not agree to the establishment of the committee.

Part of the demonstrations that swept the capitals of Indian states and demanded the trial of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani (Reuters)

The opposition resorted to the Supreme Court demanding an order for the government to conduct an investigation into the incidents of corruption, and the Indian government demanded that the court discuss the case secretly on the grounds that it is related to the country's national security, but the Chief Justice refused and established a fact-finding committee to determine the extent of the damage to the Indian economy.

Opposition parties are seeking to exploit Adani's corruption case and its links to the prime minister to besiege the government, and the opposition Congress Party plans to hold rallies in all of India's small cities in the coming weeks.

The opposition accuses Prime Minister Narendra Modi of granting Adani special investment and tax concessions, turning a blind eye to the company's manipulation and breaking laws, and accuses Modi of personally intervening with foreign governments — such as Australia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Israel — on behalf of Adani's companies.

The Congress Party, which is leading the opposition in a campaign to topple the government, recovered last year after the "Unite India" march, led by party leader Rahul Gandhi, which walked 4000,136 kilometers from southern to northern India in <> days late last year and early this year.