Jagan Mohan denies Adani deal involving Rs 1,750 cr bribe for solar power contract
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A recent filing by a US court has accused industrialist Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and six others of allegedly bribing a senior Andhra Pradesh government official to influence a major energy deal.
The indictment claims that the Adani group paid approximately Rs 1,750 crore in exchange for the official facilitating an agreement between the state’s electricity distribution companies (DISCOMs) and the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for the purchase of seven gigawatts of solar power.
The YSR Congress Party, which governed Andhra Pradesh at the time of the alleged incidents, has strongly rejected the accusations. The party maintains that there was no direct agreement between the state's DISCOMs and any entities linked to the Adani group, asserting that the allegations outlined in the court filing are incorrect.
In a statement, the party provided a detailed explanation of the process behind the state's energy agreements. It stated that the Andhra Pradesh government had been compensating the distribution utilities for the cost of supplying free power to the agricultural sector, amounting to 12,500 million units (MU) annually.
The state faced a growing financial burden due to previous agreements that involved high tariffs for power purchase agreements (PPAs), prompting the government to seek alternatives.
In 2020, the Andhra Pradesh government proposed a solar power initiative to install 10,000 MW of solar capacity in the state’s solar parks. This led to a tender being issued for 6,400 MW, but legal and regulatory hurdles delayed its success.
The state eventually received an offer from SECI, a government-owned entity, to supply 7,000 MW of solar power at a competitive tariff, which the Andhra government accepted. The YSR Congress Party emphasized that SECI is a central government enterprise, and there were no agreements directly involving Adani's companies.
The US court filings, however, detail a series of alleged meetings between Gautam Adani and the Andhra official in 2021, claiming that these encounters were part of a bribery scheme. The indictment suggests that the Adani group, through various individuals, offered bribes amounting to approximately Rs 2,029 crore (around $265 million) to Indian government officials in exchange for securing the power sale agreements that would benefit Adani’s subsidiaries.
In response, the YSR Congress Party reiterated that the agreement with SECI was conducted through a government enterprise, and there was no direct involvement of the Adani group. It further denied any wrongdoing by the state government in the energy procurement process.