My name nowhere, says former Andhra CM Jagan on Adani bribe row

PTI Amaravati: YSRCP top leader and former 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 US court’s indictment on the matter. In his first reaction days after the controversy broke out, Reddy, terming the allegation as ‘wild’, also said he had met the Adanis 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,” he said. 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 charged. Describing the agreement with the 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.