Four states and one Union Territory are in focus following the US indictment of Gautam Adani and seven others for allegedly paying bribes to Indian government officials for securing solar power contracts. The prosecutors have alleged that the Adani Group paid $265 million in bribes, with a large chunk directed at officials in Andhra Pradesh, to secure contracts with state electricity distribution companies between 2021-2023.
The other states named in the US indictment are Odisha (then ruled by Naveen Patnaik’s BJD), Tamil Nadu (under DMK), Chhattisgarh (under Congress), and Jammu and Kashmir (under Central rule). Andhra Pradesh was then helmed by Jagan Reddy’s YSR Congress.
At the heart of the case is a contract secured by Adani Green Energy and another renewable-energy company to provide 12 gigawatts of solar power to the government-owned Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). However, SECI struggled to find customers as the energy was expensive for state governments.
It is then that the Adani Group and its associates used bribes to help convince certain states to use their solar energy, as per the prosecutors. This fact, however, was concealed from the US banks and investors from whom the Adani Group raised billions for the solar energy project.
