India, July 6 -- The US Department of Justice has denied that its decision to drop criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and seven others was linked to the Adani Group's plans to invest about $10 billion in the United States, saying the prosecution was legally unsustainable and should never have been brought.

In a filing, responding to a federal judge's demand for a fuller explanation, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General R Trent McCotter rejected media reports suggesting the dismissal was influenced by the conglomerate's investment plans. "The current or former Department attorneys... have suggested that I sought dismissal of the securities charges at least in part because of some promise by those defendants to...