Ranjit Gupta, one of the non-appearing defendants in the US bribery case involving Adani Group executives, has authorised his counsel to formally confirm his consent to the Department of Justice’s motion to dismiss the charge against him with prejudice, according to a court filing made on August 12.
The filing by Gupta’s counsel, Paul H. Schoeman of Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, was submitted in response to an August 10 order by US District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the Eastern District of New York.
“Mr. Gupta has given me limited authorization” to confirm his consent to the DOJ’s motion to dismiss with prejudice the single count against him, Count One, the filing said.
The development follows Judge Garaufis’ order partially granting the DOJ’s Rule 48(a) motion to dismiss the indictment with prejudice.
The court had already dismissed with prejudice Counts Two, Three and Four against appearing defendants Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Vneet Jaain. However, it stopped short of immediately ruling on Counts One and Five against the five non-appearing defendants — Gupta, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal.
Instead, the court directed the DOJ to provide further reasons and factual support for seeking dismissal of those counts and set August 31 as the deadline.
The judge also specifically required direct assurances from the non-appearing defendants that they consented to the dismissal.
The August 12 filing represents the first such confirmation reflected in the latest court record, with Gupta’s counsel expressly confirming his client’s consent to dismissal of Count One.
The latest filing is therefore significant because it addresses one of the conditions Judge Garaufis imposed before ruling on the remaining portions of the DOJ’s dismissal request.
The court has not, however, yet entered a final dismissal of the remaining charges against all five non-appearing defendants.
The DOJ must still comply with the court’s direction to explain each reason for dismissing Counts One and Five with prejudice and provide sufficient factual support.
The August 10 order also requires counsel for Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal to advise the court of their clients’ consent by August 31.
