These deals were signed with Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh.
The indictment by United States prosecutors against Adani Group chairperson Gautam Adani and seven executives of his conglomerate and a firm named Azure Power that was made public on Wednesday does not name any officials to whom the defendants allegedly paid bribes totalling Rs 2,029 crore, approximately $265 million.
As the indictment alleged, these supply contracts with the Indian government were projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits after tax over an approximately 20-year period.
However, as Scroll and another news outlets have reported, a complaint by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission claims that one of the officials that Gautam Adani met on September 12, 2021, to discuss “incentives” needed to ensure that Andhra Pradesh entered into a power sale agreement was the state’s chief minister – the post was then held by the YSR Congress Party’s YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The bribe that the companies allegedly offered to “officials in Andhra Pradesh” was Rs 1,750 crore, more than three-quarters of the total amount allegedly paid to all the states together.
Though the indictment document and the complaint of the US market regulator do not name officials who allegedly recieved bribes, the documents contain significant details about the agreements that four states and one Union territory entered into between July 2021 and February 2022. These deals, it claims, came after bribes were offered or paid to officials in these states.
In addition to Andhra Pradesh, these were Odisha, then ruled by the Biju Janata Dal; Chhattisgarh, then ruled by the the Indian National Congress; Tamil Nadu, then ruled by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhaga; and Jammu and Kashmir, which was under Central rule at the time.
Scroll scrutinised documents of state electricity regulatory commissions and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission for records of agreements between state distribution companies and the entities named by the US Department of Justice. These records showed that each of these states and the Union territory had during the specified period signed agreements with the Solar Energy Corporation of India, which in turn signed agreements with Adani and Azure.
Scroll emailed the state distribution companies to ask if there was any connection between these deals and the allegations of bribery against state officials during the period. This story will be updated if they respond.
The Solar Energy Corporation of India is a government company that implements energy projects across India on behalf of the ministry of new and renewable energy.
