The Union government terminated the services of chairman & managing director (CMD) of the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) RP Gupta on May 10, a month before his term was set to end. While the Department of Personnel & Training reportedly did not mention the reason for his untimely termination, Congress has linked it to the ongoing probe into corruption charges against Gautam Adani in the solar deals case by United States authorities.
Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, and others were indicted by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) in November 2024 on various charges, alleging that they paid bribes totalling over Rs 2,000 crore to secure solar power deals with multiple Indian states.
These deals were made through the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). SECI is a public sector undertaking of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Among other things, it acts as an intermediary for power procurement.
However, SECI itself is not accused of any wrongdoing by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) that indicted Adani.
Congress MP and the party’s general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, noted the role of SECI in the Adani solar energy contracts case.
“Bribes worth Rs 2,029 crores were then reportedly offered and promised to Indian Government officials in exchange for these agreements, which were then finalised,” Jairam Ramesh said.
In December 2024, Reuters reported that SECI had changed the way it issues tenders “to reduce the risk of corruption.” Jairam Ramesh alleged this move “an implicit admission of corruption.”
“Now the CMD of SECI, occupied by a post-retirement bureaucrat appointed by the Modi Govt., has been sacked just a month before his tenure ends. Meanwhile the Indian government has yet to respond to repeated requests by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to serve a summons to Adani and the other accused.
Despite the attempts at the highest levels, the Modani MegaScam cannot be covered up,” he said.
RP Gupta is a Gujarat-cadre IAS officer of the 1987 batch. He retired as Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in 2021, and joined SECI in 2023. He has also worked with the NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Coal.
In November 2024, when Adani was indicted in the US, Gupta had stressed to the media that SECI had not done anything wrong and was not accused of any irregularity.
According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a huge chunk of the alleged bribes – Rs 1,750 crores – were offered to former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. While the initial power sale agreement (PSA) between the AP government and SECI was signed in 2021, before Gupta’s term.
However, in December 2023, when Gupta was the chairman, SECI entered a supplemental PSA in which one-thirds of the deal that was earlier given to Azure Power was transferred to Adani Renewable Energy. The US Securities and Exchange Commission had alleged corruption in the transfer of this deal too.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported last week that Adani and his associates have been trying to convince the Donald Trump administration to drop the criminal charges against him in the solar contracts bribery case.
Bloomberg reported that Adani and representatives of his companies have been in talks with officials in the Trump administration since January, trying to convince them that Adani’s prosecution doesn’t align with President Trump’s priorities. The talks have intensified in recent weeks, Bloomberg said, citing anonymous sources.
