Jagan Reddy Sends Legal Notice To Andhrajyothi For 'False' Reports About Him Linked To Adani Group
The notice rejected these claims as "false" and accused the newspaper of spreading malicious information about the YSRCP President.
Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday sent a legal notice to the Andhrajyothy publication demanding an unconditional apology for spreading defamatory and false reports about him concerning the US Securities and Exchange Commission legal proceedings related to the Adani Group.
The notice rejected these claims as "false" and accused the newspaper of spreading malicious information about the YSRCP President. It stated that the allegations sourced from US judicial proceedings aimed to "cause severe damage" to Jagan's reputation both as an individual and as the head of the YSR Congress party as well as to malign Reddy's functioning as the chief minister of the state between 2019 to 2024.
The notice criticised the publication for disseminating "untruthful material", alluding to bribes allegedly paid for securing agreements related to solar power purchases during his administration.
In response to reports claiming state officials received bribes for solar power purchases, the notice clarified that the power purchase agreement was an arrangement among the Andhra Pradesh government, DISCOMs, and the Solar Energy Corporation of India, with no third party involved.
"It was SECI, an instrumentality of the government of India, that had made the phenomenally beneficial offer to the government of Andhra Pradesh," states the notice.
The main advantages to the state owing to the offer from SECI inlcude:
This proposes an arrangement between GoI undertaking and state government.
The tariff at which the solar power was offered was the cheapest of the rates at which the Andhra Pradesh Distribution utilities were procuring solar power till date.
The offer from SECI also emphasises the Ministry of Power, GoI's special incentive of waiver of Intern-State Transmission Charges on the power purchased from SECI, which translates to an impact of around Rs 2 per unit of power.
The tariff of Rs 2.49 per unit offered for solar power was the lowest in 25 years in Andhra Pradesh for procurement of solar power or wind power, yet the publication continued to publish articles suggesting bribery related to US court proceedings. Jagan has called for an unconditional apology to be prominently published on the front page of the newspaper.
