By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK, June 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge ordered the Justice Department on Friday to justify its decision to drop criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, declining to rule immediately on Adani's lawyers' request earlier in the week to formally dismiss the case.
Adani was charged in 2024 with agreeing to bribe Indian government officials so a subsidiary of his Adani Group could win approval to develop a solar plant, and then misleading U.S. investors by providing reassuring information about his company's anti-corruption practices.
Adani Group has consistently denied wrongdoing.
The Justice Department said last month it would no longer pursue the prosecution. Adani's lawyers asked Brooklyn-based U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis on Wednesday to formally dismiss the case.
In a written ruling published to the court docket, Garaufis said federal prosecutors' notice that they would abandon the case did not sufficiently explain their decision and gave them a July 13 deadline to submit more information.
"The Government's terse, bland and conclusory statement affords the court neither a sufficient basis to reach any conclusion, nor the opportunity to conduct any analysis of the Government's request for dismissal," Garaufis wrote.
A spokesperson for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office, which brought the charges, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Robert Giuffra, a lawyer for Adani, referred to the letter he wrote to Garaufis on Wednesday, arguing the case should be dismissed because it was beyond the reach of U.S. law and because prosecutors would be unable to prove the alleged bribery in India.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York, Editing by Franklin Paul, Rod Nickel)
