Athira Sethu
Kochi, 21 November
Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani Group, his nephew Sagar Adani, and six others have been charged by U.S. prosecutors in New York for allegedly offering bribes worth $265 million (about Rs 2,029 crore) to Indian government officials to secure profitable solar energy contracts with state-run electricity companies in India. Charges against the group include bribes paid, deliberate deception of investors and banks, and also an attempt at obstructing justice.
The other six people involved are Vneet Jaain, the CEO of Adani Green Energy; Ranjit Gupta, former CEO at Azure Power Global; and Cyril Cabanes, an executive working for a Canadian investor. Charges also involve Rupesh Agarwal, Saurabh Agarwal, and Deepak Malhotra. Charges were filed in the U.S. District Court in New York.
Prosecutors said that the bribes connected with two massive solar projects that Adani Group and Azure Power received to provide solar energy to India were in question. However, these projects hit a snag because the state-run companies couldn’t find buyers for the power. Consequently, in 2020, defendants allegedly began making plans to bribe officials so that they might help them seal power purchase agreements. It also included offering bribes to the high-ranking official in Andhra Pradesh.
The indictment further alleges certain secretive communications among the defendants, with Gautam Adani being referred to by code names like “SAG” and “the big man.” The charges seemed specific about how they tried to influence the decisions in favor of the solar projects.
Just hours after the indictment, the episode flared political temperature as Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and his party’s called for a joint parliamentary investigation into the Adani Group’s activities.
The Adani Group responded with an all-out denial of the accusations that followed. According to a company spokesperson, the charges against them were just claims, and the individuals charged are innocent until proven otherwise. In addition, the group insisted on its high governance and transparency standards.
