New Delhi: The Union government has given Santosh Kumar Sarangi, the secretary to the union ministry of new and renewable energy, additional charge as chairman and managing director (CMD) of Solar Energy Corporation of India.
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The appointment comes after the Rameshwar Prasad Gupta was removed from the post on Saturday, a month ahead of the end of his tenure—a move that the opposition Congress party on Monday sought to link to the Adani Group’s indictment in the US over alleged bribery charges.
Sarangi will remain in his new post “till the appointment of a regular incumbent or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” said a notification by the Department of Personnel and Training.
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Sarangi, an IAS officer of 1994 batch Odisha, was appointed the secretary, MNRE last month among several other bureaucratic reshuffles, following his stint as the director general of foreign trade under the ministry of commerce and industry.
The department of personnel and training in a strongly-worded notification on Saturday, said that the appointments committee of the cabinet has approved “termination of services” of Gupta, IAS, as the CMD of SECI with immediate effect. The notification did not cite any reason for the termination.
The sudden removal of the CMD attracted criticism from the Congress party, whose general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh described the move as an “attempt to cover up” the alleged scam that led to Adani’s indictment last year.
“The public sector Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) was indicted on November 20, 2024, by US authorities in the chargesheet against Gautam Adani and his close associates. It was based on SECI’s recommendation that different states entered into purchase agreements with Adani. Bribes worth ₹2,029 crore were then reportedly offered and promised to Indian Government officials in exchange for these agreements, which were then finalized,” he said.
“In an implicit admission of corruption, in December 2024, SECI changed the way its issues power tenders. 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 (a reference to Modi and Adani) MegaScam cannot be covered up,” Ramesh said in a post on X.
The Adani Group and SECI did not immediately respond to mailed queries.
Of late, the state-run company has found itself embroiled in a few controversies, including its mention in the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) indictment of Adani Group for alleged bribery of about $250 million to secure power purchase agreements for solar energy projects in Andhra Pradesh, and the submission of fake bid documents by Reliance Power to SECI for a renewable energy tender.
Last November US prosecutors indicted Gautam Adani and other executives for alleged bribery. Speaking to Mint in November, Gupta said that SECI would not review the order or initiate a probe as there was no basis for it. He denied any wrongdoing.
On 6 November, SECI barred Reliance Power and its subsidiary Reliance NU BESS from participating in tenders floated by the state-run entity for three years for allegedly submitting fake documents. However, it later withdrew its order following the Delhi High Court’s stay on the company’s debarment.
SECI has been tasked with tendering 20 GW of renewable energy projects a year for the next few years. The company also has plans to set up 10 GW of solar capacity of its own and go public by FY27.
Incorporated in 2011, SECI serves as an implementing agency for the development of solar, wind and hybrid projects to fulfil the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). To achieve this, SECI releases tenders for selection of renewable energy developers for the establishment of projects on a pan-India or state-specific basis.
