Days before the first phase of Bihar polls, BJP leader and former union power minister Raj Kumar Singh accused the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government of a Rs 62,000 crore electricity scam in an interview with ABP News. Singh alleged that the Bihar government had signed a deal with Adani Power Limited to buy electricity at inflated rates – a burden that, he said, would ultimately fall on the public.

However, more than Singh’s allegations on Tuesday morning, it was ABP News itself that became the centre of discussion. The channel deleted the interview video from its X handle shortly after posting it. 

The issue was later raised during a Congress press conference on Tuesday afternoon, hours after the video. Party spokesperson Pawan Khera said the “scam” deserved a CBI probe and the party had “kept a copy” of the video posted by the channel. “So even if they delete it, rest assured.”

Others raised similar questions online.

The video remains on other platforms

During his conversation with ABP reporter Shashank, Singh had alleged that the Bihar government had signed an agreement with Adani Power Limited to set up a thermal power plant in Pirpainti, under which the state would buy electricity for 25 years at over Rs 6 per unit – a rate, Singh claimed, was far higher than the market price. “This is a huge scam… in total, it’s a Rs 1.4 lakh crore affair,” he said.

He alleged that under this deal, Bihar would have to pay an extra Rs 2,500 crore every year, adding up to roughly Rs 62,000 crore over 25 years. “This is public money. Who will pay for it? The people will,” he said, calling for a CBI probe and criminal action against any officials or ministers found involved.

The video was originally posted at 6.51 am on X and tagged both the news anchor and reporter. This was deleted but the same clip is part of the channel’s news bulletin on Facebook as well as the website. However, the bulletin posted on YouTube has edited out the interview.

Interestingly, the YouTube video’s title and description still reference Singh’s corruption allegations. The title reads: “Bihar election mein phoota bomb: BJP ke poorv mantri ne lagaye 62,000 crore ghotale ka aarop”. The same title appears on ABP’s website and Facebook posts.

When contacted about the deleted post, Tushar Banerjee, head of digital content strategy at ABP News, denied any knowledge of such a tweet and directed us to speak to senior editor Rajneesh Ahuja. Calls to Ahuja went unanswered.

A senior ABP staffer told us that the deletion was likely an internal error, since the report remains available elsewhere.

A spokesperson for Adani Enterprises declined to comment. A questionnaire was sent to the company. This report will be updated if a response is received.

Singh could not be reached for comment. However, an associate of Singh claimed Singh is aware of the post being taken down on X and has raised allegations against Adani in other interviews, including one with senior journalist Ajit Anjum. Singh has also referred to the ABP post being taken down in one of the interviews.

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