A New York court has ordered the simultaneous hearing of 3 cases alleging bribery worth billions of rupees against industrialist Gautam Adani and others. The court ordered that these cases will be heard together in a joint trial. The cases to be heard together include US vs Adani and others (criminal case against Adani), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) vs Adani and others (civil case against Adani) and SEC vs Cabness (civil case against other accused). The court gave this decision when it found that these cases are related to similar allegations and transactions. The court said that this decision has been taken to promote judicial efficiency. It will assign all the cases to District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, who is also overseeing the criminal case against Adani. Court staff has been directed to reallocate the cases. 8 accused including Gautam Adani and his nephew in bribery case Earlier on 21 November 2024, the United States Attorney’s Office had said that Adani had given or was planning to give a bribe of $265 million (then about Rs 2200 crore) to Indian officials to get a contract related to solar energy in India. This whole matter is related to Adani Group company Adani Green Energy Limited and another firm. This case was registered in the Federal Court of New York on 24 October 2024. In its hearing on Wednesday, November 20, Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, Vineet S Jain, Ranjit Gupta, Cyril Cabanis, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal have been made accused. The Reuters report said that an arrest warrant has also been issued against Gautam Adani and Sagar. Sagar is an officer of Adani Green Energy Limited. Adani Group has termed all the allegations as baseless Adani Group has termed all the allegations as baseless. Issuing a statement on November 21, the group had said- ‘The allegations leveled by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission against the directors of Adani Green Energy Limited are baseless. We deny them. The US Justice Department itself said that these are just allegations right now. The accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Understand, what is the whole case of manipulation and bribery… According to the filing of the US Justice Department, Solar Energy Corporation of India i.e. SECI had issued a contract for the supply of 12 gigawatts of energy in the country. SECI is a renewable energy company of the Government of India, which aims to increase the use of solar energy in the country. Between December 2019 and July 2020, Adani Green Energy Limited i.e. AGEL and a foreign firm won the contract. They were issued a Letter of Award (LOA). Here a problem arose. SECI was not getting customers for the electricity purchased from AGEL and foreign firms. In such a situation, it could not buy electricity from AGEL and foreign firms. This would cause losses to Adani’s company and foreign firms. According to the charge sheet, Gautam Adani, along with 7 people including his nephew Sagar Adani, Vineet Jain, hatched a conspiracy to bribe the officials. So that the state governments enter into a power sale agreement with SECI and their solar power agreement gets a buyer. According to the charge sheet, ‘Gautam Adani met a senior officer of Andhra Pradesh several times between 7 August 2021 and 20 November 2021. So that a solar power agreement could be signed between Andhra Pradesh Electricity Distribution Company (APEPDCL) and SECI.’ After this, an agreement was made between APEPDCL and SECI. AGEL and the foreign firm got the contract. After this, the State Electricity Distribution Boards of Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir signed contracts for purchasing electricity. Sagar Adani manages the energy business. Gautam Adani’s nephew, Sagar has a degree in Economics from Brown University US. Sagar joined Adani Group in 2015. Sagar manages the energy business and finance of the group. He focuses on the renewable energy business and plans to make the company the world’s largest renewable energy producer by 2030. Adani Green Energy has a clean energy portfolio of over 20 GW Adani Green Energy Limited has a clean energy portfolio of over 20 GW, which includes one of the world’s largest solar power plants in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Adani Group has set a target of becoming the country’s largest company in this sector by 2030.
