The BJP on Thursday said that the electricity purchase agreement, which figures in the indictment of Gautam Adani by a US Court, in the solar power scandal, was done by States ruled by either Congress or its friendly parties and not the BJP.

Briefing media to defend Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has come under the opposition attack for allegedly shielding Adani Group, BJP MP Sambit Patra said Adani Group would defend itself and the law will take its own course.

According to him, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has a habit of “sensationalising things”. However, in the end, nothing emerges — as it happened in the case of the Rafael deal and during the Covid epidemic and he had to apologise, Patra said.

“The whole issue is about the agreement for the electricity purchase with the State Distribution Companies (SDCs). There are two companies — one Indian, one American — and four States involved in it. This whole matter was dated between July 2021 and February 2022,” the BJP leader said.

No objection to probe

The SDCs are owned by State governments and at that time, all these States were either ruled by Congress or its allies and not by BJP, Patra said, as he welcomed Rahul Gandhi’s demand for investigation against Adani.

An investigation, he insisted, should be conducted against all those Chief Ministers who were ruling these States during that period.

“SDCs are the property of the State governments; among the four Indian States, one was Chhattisgarh — at that time, it was ruled by Congress’ Bhupesh Baghel, it is present in documents; Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of bribery.... These are all allegations. It wasn’t BJP’s or BJP-supported government; in Tamil Nadu, it was DMK’s government; in Odisha, it was BJD’s government. So, in all these four States, it wasn’t BJP’s or BJP-supported government, rather it was Congress’ and its allies’ governments. If Rahul Gandhi has said he has no objection, then an investigation should be conducted against Bhupesh Baghel and all other CMs of these States. We don’t have any objection,” he told reporters at the press briefing.

On Adani Group allegedly paying bribes of over ₹2,000 crore, he said that there is a case against that company in the US. “There are allegations and counter-allegations. We clearly believe that as far as the company and the case against it are concerned, the company will issue a statement and defend itself on its own. Law will take its own course...”

The US District Court for the Eastern District of New York has issued a five-count criminal indictment against Chairman of the Adani Group, Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and others for allegedly paying more than $250 million in bribes to Indian officials for lucrative solar energy supply contracts.

Adani Group, however, in a statement described all allegations “baseless” and said “all possible legal recourse will be sought”.