The ECI made the data public Thursday evening on the orders of the Supreme Court which last month stated that the electoral bonds scheme, introduced in 2017 to “cleanse the political funding”, was “illegal”.
The data was shared with the country’s election watchdog by the State Bank of India — the nodal public sector bank appointed for the sale and redemption of electoral bonds.
When contacted by ThePrint, a DLF spokesperson, referring to the electoral bond purchases, said, “These are fully disclosed in our book of accounts for the respective years. We have no further comments.”
DLF also shared a letter it sent to the vice-president of the National Stock Exchange of India on 25 November, 2023 under a SEBI disclosure rule. The letter disclosed that a team of ED officers had visited its premises seeking information “in the matter of Supertech” and that the company had extended “full cooperation” by providing all the relevant documents.
ThePrint reached all the other companies mentioned above via email. This report will be updated if and when responses are received.
Also read: Directly, via proxy, or through subsidiaries — how India’s biggest corporates bought electoral bonds
Top donors came under lens
In an earlier report, ThePrint Friday identified the top two purchasers of electoral bonds as Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd (along with Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR) and Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, which bought electoral bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore and Rs 966 crore, respectively, between 2019 and 2024.
Future Gaming and Hotel Services, which also runs a lottery business, was under the scanner of the ED since 2019, and the agency charge-sheeted the company last year.
At the same time, Megha Engineering and Infrastructure faced raids by the Income Tax department and has been at the centre of a political controversy in Telangana for its role in the “faulty” and “economically unviable” Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project.
The fourth and fifth top buyers of electoral bonds, mining and metal giant Vedanta and RP Sanjiv Goenka Group-owned Haldia Energy Pvt. Ltd bought electoral bonds worth Rs 400.65 crore and Rs 377 crore, respectively.
According to the records available, Vedanta made its first bond purchase on 16 April 2019 and the final recorded purchase in November last year. Haldia Energy, meanwhile, made its first purchase on 7 May 2019 and the final recorded purchase in January this year.
A subsidiary of Vedanta, the Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd, a supercritical 1,980 MW world-class thermal power plant in Punjab’s Mansa district, was raided by the ED in August 2022 in connection with a money laundering probe.
In another case, the CBI, in March 2020, booked Vedanta, Talwandi Sabo Power, Haldia Energy and 26 others for allegedly hatching a conspiracy with public servants and causing losses to Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd. Sections of The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 were also invoked against those accused.
Another buyer of electoral bonds that faced action is Yashoda Super Specialty Hospital. Premises linked to the hospital in Hyderabad and Secunderabad were raided by the Income Tax department in December 2020. Yashoda made its first purchase of electoral bonds in October 2021, buying Rs 10 crore worth of bonds. Its last recorded purchase of electoral bonds was in October last year.
Real estate giant DLF, which bought electoral bonds worth Rs 185 crore in tranches through its three companies — DLF Commercial Developers Ltd, DLF Luxury Homes Ltd, and DLF Garden City Indore Pvt Ltd — has also faced CBI and ED actions in the past. The CBI raided premises linked to the company in January 2019 in a case related to an alleged irregularity in land allotment, while the ED raided premises linked to the company last November.
The company purchased its first electoral bond in October 2019 and the final recorded purchase was made in November 2022.
Also read: Electoral bonds: Lottery firm charged by ED & infra company raided by IT dept emerge as top 2 donors
Bought bonds after action
Other top 20 buyers of electoral bonds who were under the lens of central agencies include Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and Chennai Green Woods Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of Ramky Group.
Jindal Steel and Power, chaired by former MP Naveen Jindal, faced ED raids in April 2022 over alleged violations of rules of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The company bought electoral bonds worth Rs 123 crore between October 2022 and November 2023.
The Income Tax department raided the Ramky Group of companies in July 2021. The department, reportedly, found proof of “artificial loss” of Rs 1,200 crore. Its subsidiary company, Chennai Green Woods, bought Rs 105 crore worth of electoral bonds between January 2022 and October 2023.
Also on the list is Shirdi Sai Electricals. The Income Tax department raided the company headquarters in Kadapa, Telangana, in December last year. It made its first purchase of electoral bonds on 11 January 2024 and went on to buy a total of 40 bonds of denomination Rs 1 crore each.
Another donor, Hetero Drugs, was raided by the Income Tax department in November 2021. At the time, the department, reportedly, detected “unaccounted” income of Rs 550 crore and seized Rs 142 crore from the group. Cut to April 2022, the group and its subsidiaries bought its first electoral bond and ended up buying 60 bonds of Rs 1 crore each until October 2023.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: Keep political donations a secret. Disclosure can lead to states victimising corporations