Who is to blame for the Rs 50,000 crore rout in Adani group shares?

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Editor's note: On Tuesday, a sharp fall in share prices wiped out Rs 50,000 crore in market capitalization across publicly traded Adani group companies. It was the biggest single-day loss in a month and came at a time when the worst seemed over for the group, following the publication of American short-seller Hindenburg Research’s report on issues with the conglomerate in January. In fact, the group’s shares seemed poised for a recovery after another US-based investment firm GQG Partners invested $1.87 billion earlier this month, buying shares of several firms. The fall was triggered by an article in The Ken initially titled “The Adani Group wants you to believe it has repaid all its loans against promoters’ shares. Here’s why you shouldn’t”. The article was written by two chartered accountants, Sudarshan Bhandari and Nimish Maheshwari, who publish market analysis on Twitter and YouTube as Beat The Street. Their article said that the Adani group’s claim to have paid off $2.1 billion to release shares pledged didn’t appear correct. The writers pointed out that pledges weren’t discharged, as per regulatory filings, after the …