INDIA’S Parliament was disrupted for a third day today by opposition parties protesting at the government’s silence over allegations against billionaire Gautam Adani.

Mr Adani was recently accused of fraud in the United States as well as a scheme to pay bribes.

As Speaker Om Birla convened the powerful lower house of Parliament, opposition members shot up from their seats and crowded the aisles, shouting anti-government slogans. 

Congress and other opposition parties have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of protecting Mr Adani, an Indian coal magnate.

“I don’t appreciate the manner of protest,” Mr Birla said, adjourning the session over the opposition disruptions. 

Proceedings in Parliament’s upper house were also adjourned.

The opposition called for a joint committee to investigate Mr Adani’s companies, which include agriculture, renewable energy, coal and infrastructure.

Mr Adani, one of the world’s richest men, and seven associates were charged last week by US prosecutors in New York with securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud. 

The charges allege that Mr Adani duped investors in a massive solar project in India by concealing that it was being facilitated by bribes.

The charges outline an alleged scheme to pay about $265 million (£209m) in bribes to Indian government officials.

The Adani Group said in a statement last week that the allegations by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission against directors of Adani Green are baseless.

In the absence of a statement by the Indian government, Amit Malviya, the governing Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT head, also said in a post on the social media platform X that the US charges are “allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty,” which critics interpreted as a show of support by the Mr Modi government for the Adani Group.