The president of a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt which manages highway projects in India has just resigned, while allegations of corruption target former executives of this firm.
Romesh Sobti, president of the firm that manages the Maple Highways platform, owned by the Caisse, resigned from his position a few days before Christmas.
Sobti has headed the board of directors of this company since 2021.
“In the context of his various professional involvements, and in light of the information recently made public by the authorities, both parties considered it desirable for him to leave the board of directors of Maple,” explained the spokesperson. -spokesperson for the Caisse, Jean-Benoît Houde, in response to a question from our Investigation Office.
Romesh Sobti, former chairman of the board of directors of the firm managing Maple Highways. Photo credit: from Maple Highways Annual Report
from Maple Highways Annual Report
Other Maple Highways directors in the past have included Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Cyril Cabanes. These last three former executives of the Fund were accused in November in the United States in an alleged corruption case affecting the solar energy producer Azure Power Global.
Unlike them, Sobti does not face any charges. His departure occurred a few days after the publication of articles in The Press which raised the question of whether the placement of the Caisse in Azure was indeed the only Caisse project in India in which there would have been corruption.
The articles in the daily on rue Saint-Jacques notably mentioned a billion-dollar investment by the Caisse in a toll highway bypassing the Indian capital of Delhi, the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE).
The Caisse paid in 2022 almost twice as much as what the second bidder offered for this project, and the project would already be dilapidated.
View from the air of an Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) toll booth.
taken from the Maple Highways website
In a transcript of a July 2023 annual meeting consulted by our Bureau of Investigation, Sobti explicitly praises the EPE. “The Maple team […] was able to win and successfully operationalize the prestigious Eastern peripheral highways,” he particularly rejoices.
Unlike a document announcing the departure of Agarwal and Malhotra dated September 2024, the document consulted by our Bureau of Investigation announcing the resignation of Sobti does not praise Sobti and is limited to attributing his resignation to commitments and increased professional responsibilities.
Director of an Adani company
Furthermore, in addition to having served on the board of Maple Highways, Romesh Sobti still sits on the board of directors of at least one company of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who is also accused in the United States in the same scandal where Caisse directors are involved.
Indian billionaire Gautam Adani in 2022.
AFP
Sobti has served on the board of Adani Green Energy Limited since September 2021.
Sobti was appointed head of the Maple Highways board “following recruitment carried out by an external firm and following a background check by an independent firm,” said the Caisse spokesperson. No issues had been identified, he added.
MAPLE HIGHWAYS
- Creation date: 2020
- Toll revenue (2023): US$78 million
- Number of kilometers under management: 1212 km
Do you have any information to share with us about this story?
Write to us at or call us directly at 1 800-63SCOOP.
