New Delhi: The mention of one “Foreign Official #1” who is alleged as having purportedly received Rs 1,750 crores as bribe from the Adani Group in the US Attorney’s Offices’s criminal indictment against billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani has caused a storm in Andhra Pradesh’s political circles.
There is a swirl of controversy over the actions of the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy who was at the helm of affairs in Andhra Pradesh in the duration of the purported scandal involving bribes having been paid to Indians.
The indictment alleges that Gautam Adani himself was personally involved in talks in which “more than $250 million was promised in bribes to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts.” Adani Group has called the charges baseless and denied them.
The US laws allow investigations against foreign corruption if US markets are involved or impacted.
The public copy of the indictment anonymises several names and institutions, among which is “Foreign Official #1.”
The indictment notes that #1 was a citizen of India who resided in India. “From approximately May 2019 through June 2024, Foreign Official #1 served as a high-ranking government official of Andhra Pradesh, India,” it said.
In June 2024, Andhra Pradesh saw a change in government, with Jaganmohan Reddy being voted out of power and Chandrababu Naidu being elected chief minister.
The indictment said that Adani “personally met with Foreign Official #1 in Andhra Pradesh to advance the execution of a PSA between SECI and Andhra Pradesh’s state electricity distribution companies, including on or about August 7, 2021, on or about September 12, 2021 and on or about November 20, 2021.”
On September 13, 2021, Andhra media had reported Jagan meeting with Adani and other Group officials without him disclosing the fact or details of those meetings.
A report on September 13 said that in September 2021, Gautam Adani “along with his brothers” met Jagan at the then chief minister’s Tadepalli residence. There was no official update on the visit, the report said, noting that this goes against tradition when it comes to such a meeting.
Another report noted that the other Adani with Gautam was his brother Karan who was the chief executive officer of Adani Ports and SEZ Limited.
Before this visit, the Andhra Pradesh government made a move to sell its 10.4% stake in the Gangavaram port to the Adani Group, which at that time had around 89.61% stake in the port. The move was challenged in the high court.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) had demanded the Andhra Pradesh government disclose the details of this secret meeting between Jagan and Adani, following which the Andhra Pradesh state cabinet adopted resolutions to allow Adani group to set up 9,000 megawatt solar power plants in the state.
The party had asked why the contract was given to Adani alone when several contractors, and some closer home, could have shared the execution of the project.
The indictment said, “Approximately 1,750 crore rupees (approximately $228 million) of the corrupt payments was offered to Foreign Official #1 in exchange for Foreign Official #1 causing Andhra Pradesh’s state electricity distribution companies to agree to purchase seven gigawatts of solar power from SECI under the Manufacturing Linked Project.”
The indictment notes that Andhra Pradesh’s electricity distribution companies entered into a PSA [or power supply agreement] with SECI on or about December 1, 2021, pursuant to which the state agreed to purchase approximately seven gigawatts of solar power – by far the largest amount of any Indian state or region.
SECI or Solar Energy Corporation of India was a company of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy under the Narendra Modi-ruled Union government of India. “SECI was stateowned and state-controlled and performed a function that India treated as its own. SECI was an “instrumentality” of the Indian government,” the indictment says.
A month after the alleged meeting between Adani and Jagan, in 2021, a report in an Andhra outlet said that Jagan was attracting attention over his use of special private jets owned by the Adanis and Ambanis. In October, Jagan had used an Adani flight to Chittoor to visit the Tirupati temple. In August, before his meeting with the Adanis, he had used a flight owned by the Reliance Group.
