GVK Vice Chairman denies Rahul Gandhi's claims about pressure to sell Mumbai airport to Adani

The Hindenburg report has opened a can of worms for Adani, raising several questions other than those in the report. It highlighted Vinod Adani's links to shell companies and the fact that ex-UK PM Boris Johnson's brother was on an Adani-linked firm's board. Hours after Rahul Gandhi made allegations about the misuse of Indian agencies to snatch away Mumbai airport from GVK for Adani, the former has dismissed his claims.

Airport operator GVK's Vice Chairman GV Sanjay Reddy, has told a news channel, that he strongly denies Gandhi's comments about Modi forcing GVK out of Mumbai airport. Speaking about allegations that the government hijacked Mumbai Airport for Adani, Reddy clarified that there was no pressure from anyone to sell.

"As far as GVK is concerned there was no pressure on GVK either from Adani group or from any agencies. We sold airport due to our own commercial interest," he said.

"There was no pressure on GVK from Adani group or any agencies.We sold airport due to our own commercial interest, raised some loans which was to be repaid," he said.

Explaining the transaction, Reddy said that they were trying to raise funds since the debt raised for Bengaluru airport's acquisition was to be repaid. That's when they found three investors, just before the airport business was hit by covid, causing financial stress. That's when the firm was approached by Gautam Adani, who agreed to complete the transaction for Mumbai Airport in a month.

Without commenting on political issues, Reddy said that the sale to Adani was purely because of the GVK conglomerate's needs, since they had to pay back their dues. The company is known for executing the first private airport project in Mumbai, back in 2006.