Met Adanis several times but...: Jagan denies bribery charges

YSRCP top leader and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday strongly refuted allegations of payment of bribes to Andhra Pradesh officials by the Adani Group for solar power purchases during his party-led government, and said his name was not mentioned anywhere in a United States court's indictment on the matter.

In his first reaction days after the controversy broke out, Reddy also said he had met the Adanis (Gautam Adani or any of his family members) several times during his tenure as the CM of Andhra Pradesh which was "not unusual".

"Nowhere it mentions that incentives were offered to me because there is no way anybody can offer incentives to me, first of all. And businessmen meeting heads of states is not unusual.This in fact is an ordinary practice," he told reporters.

He further said the allegations of bribes are all hearsay and nobody has said that Jagan or somebody has taken bribes.

"There was no mention of my name. Please go through whatever those people (in the US) have said. Somebody should be a fool to name me or anybody else because I never dealt with them," said Reddy, who was the CM of Andhra Pradesh between 2019 and 2024.

Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani has been charged by the US Department of Justice over his role in a years-long scheme to pay USD 250 million bribe to Indian officials, in exchange for favourable solar power contracts, an allegation refuted by the Indian conglomerate.

Reddy said the agreement was between AP DISCOMS (buyer) and SECI (seller) and there was no third party involved.

"And where is any third-party there. If somebody is so foolish and so stupid and somebody goes by hearsay and speaks some kind of nonsense and stupidity, nobody can help," he said.

Describing the agreement with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) as 'historic,' the former CM said that with the power supply agreement with SECI at Rs 2.49 per unit, the state would be saving over Rs one lakh crore over 25 years.

Giving the chronological order of the events, the YSRCP chief said the state government received a letter from SECI offering 7000 MW of Solar Power at Rs 2.49 per unit waiving Inter-state transmission system (ISTS) charges on September 15, 2021 and the agreement was signed on December 1, 2021.

On the reports that Gujarat Discoms got a cheaper price than that of AP, he said there were no interstate transmission charges as the power is produced within the western state itself.

Replying to a query on what would happen if the present government scraps the deal with SECI, Reddy said "Nobody is so insane to scrap this kind of deal".

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had earlier said the state government was in possession of the "chargesheet reports" filed in the US related to the alleged bribery and 'promised' to act on the alleged irregularities.

The allegations involving the YSRCP regime and Adani group have hurt the prestige and brand image of the southern state, Naidu had said and termed it as a "very sad development".

The former CM further said he would file a defamation case to the tune of Rs 100 crore against some vernacular dailies for allegedly distorting the facts and publishing stories, if they do not apologise within 48 hours.

Earlier too, the opposition YSRCP had said its government had no direct agreement with the Adani Group, and that the power sale pact signed in 2021 was between the SECI and AP Discoms.

It had last week said the power procurement of 7,000 MW was approved by AP Electricity Regulatory Commission in November, 2021 after which the Power Sale Agreement (PSA) was signed on December 1, 2021 between SECI and AP Discoms.

Referring to Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's remarks that the state's financial position has gone for a toss during the previous regime, Reddy said, "This is an organised, orchestrated mud-slinging activity which is happening".