Top government officials, including former power and energy state minister Nasrul Hamid, reportedly colluded with several corporate entities in Bangladesh and India to secure controversial power deals under an indemnity law during the past Awami League regime.
The national committee, commissioned to review the controversial power deals of the AL era, reportedly gathered sufficient circumstantial evidence to prosecute the corporate companies and their collaborators in an international arbitration court.
The national committee comprising five members was formed in September last year, about three months before the controversial indemnity law—Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provision) Act 2010—was finally repealed 14 years after its promulgation.
After the repeal, the incumbent government, which replaced the past AL government in August last year following a student-led uprising, cancelled all solar projects approved under the now-defunct law but retained all fossil fuel-based projects.
A high official at the Bangladesh Power Development Board said that the government decided to file a case against Adani Power based on the findings of the national committee, which were not yet officially announced.
“At least a dozen top government officials, including the then energy adviser, power and energy state minister, and secretaries, worked in collusion with three corporate companies, particularly,” said an investigator who has complete knowledge of the probe.
“There is enough circumstantial evidence to establish collusion to secure controversial power deals,” the investor said on condition of anonymity.
The corporate companies, including SAlam and Adani, watched each other’s back and pulled strings in favor of each other to secure predatory power and energy tariffs, the investigator explained.
The investigation traced a pattern in the process of approving power and energy deals. International travels by top government officials preceded or succeeded the signing of such deals. The cost of such travels, which came with luxurious packages with stays in expensive hotels and gambling in casinos, was covered by the corporate companies, the investigator said.
The international trips often resulted in the top government officials travelling to multiple countries. Transactions of large sums of money occurred in third countries during the foreign trips, the investigator said.
The investigation, however, could not give an idea about how much money was transacted during the signing of the controversial power deals.
“This network of people was actually part of an international money laundering network,” the investigator said.
“We have proof that former PM Sheikh Hasina asked her close associates to smoothly facilitate the controversial deals,” said the investigator.
Sheikh Hasina was the power and energy minister between 2009 and 2024, when Bangladesh’s installed power generation capacity increased about sixfold to over 28,000MW through the construction of power plants without bidding. Over 100 power plants, mostly based on fossil fuels, were constructed.
The BPDB said that the AL government invested about $33 billion during its tenure in the power sector alone.
Speaking on a particular finding, the investigator said that Adani Power secured a predatory power tariff for its 1,496 MW coal-based Godda power plant in a negotiation brokered by the S Alam group, which owns its own controversial coal-based 1,224MW power plant in Banshkhali, Chattogram.
The construction of the Banshkhali power plant faced strong opposition from locals over its potential negative impacts on their livelihoods and the environment. At least four people were killed during protests that were suppressed by police and AL front-wing activists using excessive force.
Besides the power deals signed with Adani Power and S Alam group, the national committee also reviewed other power deals, such as the ones signed for setting up 1,320MW coal-based Payra power plant, the 335 MW dual fuel-based Meghnaghat power plant, the 583 MW dual fuel-based Meghnaghat power plant, and the 584 MW gas- or LNG-based Meghnaghat power plant.
In November last year, more than two months after the national committee came into being, a High Court bench had ordered the incumbent government to have all power and energy deals relating to Adani reviewed in 60 days.
The order apparently stayed unheeded, said M Abdul Qaium, whose writ petition drew the HC order.
The HC bench that had passed the order no longer exists.
Qaium approached two separate HC benches to look into the matter, but no bench would hear him. "This is frustrating,” said Qaium.
“The incumbents are using a lot of anti-India rhetoric while allowing a controversial Indian company to operate,” he said.
BPDB chairman Rezaul Karim said that the national committee had not yet submitted its report and that he knew nothing about its findings.
A message was sent, and calls were made over the phone to the energy adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan for a comment on the matter. He did not respond.
Sheikh Hasina, many members of her cabinet, including Nasrul Hamid, and some former top government officials fled Bangladesh last year. Hasina's energy adviser, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, is currently behind bars.
Controversial Adani Power Deal
The power purchase agreement (PPA) signed with Adani Power allows the company to manipulate the coal price.
Adani uses coal with a calorific value of 4,600 kcal/kg, but Bangladesh pays for coal with a calorific value of 6,322 kcal/kg.
Quality differences could halve the coal price.
The unique PPA also allows Adani to blend Indonesian and Australian coal indexes to get an average price payable by Bangladesh. Australian coal is of very high quality and more expensive compared with Indonesian coal.
The PPA, which was never officially made public, also lacked the common discount provision that protects consumers against sudden fuel price inflation. The Payra power plant deal ensures up to a 40 per cent discount in the event of fuel price inflation. The discount provision applies if the coal price exceeds $115 a ton.
A report by the Bangladesh Working Group on Ecology and Development estimated that Adani would have its investment returned in a maximum of six years. Even if Adani produces no electricity during its lifetime of 25 years, it would have earned $12 billion in capacity charges.
Adani’s Godda investment was estimated to be $2 billion.
The absence of the price discount provision, the BPDB explained in an estimate, allowed the Indian corporate giant to earn between $1.5 million and $66 million every month.
The Washington Post had reported that the Adani power deal was the result of a direct favor of Sheikh Hasina to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In 2023, a US-based short-seller in a report accused the Adani group of ‘manipulation’ and ‘fraudulence.’ The group’s owner, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, had also faced an arrest warrant issued by a US court for fraud and conspiracy.