New Delhi:

Infina Finance, one of the promoter group entities of Kotak Mahindra Bank – currently facing RBI action, had donated electoral bonds worth Rs 60 crore to the BJP.

Infina Finance, owned by the Kotak family, is listed as one of the promoter group entities of Kotak Mahindra Bank. However, it owns no shares in the private sector lender, which the RBI has barred from issuing fresh credit cards.

As per the shareholding data with the BSE, as of March 2024, the promoter and promoter group entities hold a 25.89 per cent stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Uday Kotak is the promoter and single largest shareholder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, with a 25.71 per cent stake. Other promoter group entities hold the remaining 0.18 per cent stake.

The Mumbai-based Infina Finance donated electoral bonds worth Rs 60 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The NBFC firm purchased these bonds in the denomination of Rs 1 crore in 2019, 2020 and 2021, according to the data given by the State Bank of India (SBI) to the Election Commission. The data was made public last month.

Infina Finance Private Ltd, according to its website, was incorporated in 2008 and is in the business of capital market financing and proprietary trading and investments.

Infina, a non-deposit accepting, systemically important non-banking financial company registered with the RBI, had reported a profit of Rs 105.55 crore in 2022-23. The firm posted a total income of Rs 227.84 crore during the fiscal.

On Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred Kotak Mahindra Bank from onboarding new customers through its online and mobile banking channels and issuing fresh credit cards with immediate effect after the regulator found “serious deficiencies” in the lender’s IT risk management.

These actions, the RBI said, are necessitated based on significant concerns arising out of the Reserve Bank’s IT examination of the bank for the years 2022 and 2023, and its continued failure to address these concerns in a comprehensive and timely manner. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Bharatiya Janata Party was the largest beneficiary of electoral bonds between April 2019 and January 2024 – companies donated Rs 5,594 crore in that period – the Election Commission of India said this week. The BJP pocketed over three times the amount (Rs 1,592 crore) the Trinamool Congress took home and more than four times the amount donated to its arch-rivals Congress (Rs 1,351 crore).

Fourth on the list was former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi, which was dumped out of power by the Congress in November; the BRS got Rs 1,191 crore.

Odisha’s Biju Janata Dal, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam from Tamil Nadu, and the YSR Congress Party and Telugu Desam Party from Andhra Pradesh are next on the list; the BJD got Rs 775 crore and the DMK got Rs 632 crore, while the TDP raked in Rs 211 crore and the YSRCP Rs 128 crore.

The last big name on the list is the Aam Aadmi Party, which got Rs 65 crore via electoral bonds.

READ | Electoral Bonds Codes Out, Donors Can Be Matched With Parties

Exactly how much each party received through the contentious electoral bonds – in a landmark verdict last month the Supreme Court called the scheme “unconstitutional” – has come to light after the State Bank of India released the alphanumeric codes that match donors to parties.

The SBI – hauled up by the court for first appearing to delay release of electoral bonds data and then neglecting to provide matching codes – submitted the data to the Election Commission on Thursday.

Under the rules, the SBI was the only bank allowed to issue electoral bonds; this, of course, was only till the top court ordered the scheme be scrapped and the public sector bank to stop selling bonds.

Earlier the SBI had released two lists – one of donors and the other of receiving political parties – but without the codes it was not possible to see which donor had given how much to which party.

What was apparent then was that companies like Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd., Qwik Supply Chain Pvt. Ltd., Vedanta, and the Bharti Group were among the top corporate donors.

How Much Did BJP Get From Electoral Bonds?

With the codes, it is now clear the BJP received Rs 584 crore from Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd., and Rs 375 crore from Qwik Supply Chain. Vedanta donated Rs 226 crore and Airtel Rs 183 crore. Other major donors included real estate giants DLF, which gave Rs 133 crore.

Also, Hyderabad-based Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd. – building the tunnel in Uttarakhand’s Silkyara, a portion of which collapsed last year – purchased Rs 55 crore worth of bonds for the BJP.

READ | Firm Building Uttarakhand Tunnel That Collapsed Gave 55 Crore To BJP

How Much Did Trinamool Get From Electoral Bonds?

The party second on the list of beneficiaries – Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool – received Rs 542 crore from Future Gaming & Hotel Services Pvt. Ltd., which is a Coimbatore-based lottery company. It is owned by a Colombian businessman called Santiago Martin, who runs lottery companies worldwide.

READ | Electoral Bonds: Trinamool Biggest Beneficiary Of ‘Lottery King’ Donor

Future Gaming is, in fact, the biggest buyer of electoral bonds; it has donated Rs 1,368 crore between April 2019 and January 2024. The company was in the headlines in July 2019 after the Enforcement Directorate attached assets worth Rs 250 crore in an alleged money laundering scam.

Besides Trinamool, Future Gaming also gave Rs 509 crore to the DMK and around Rs 160 crore to the YSR Congress Party, as well as Rs 100 crore to BJP, the data showed.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress also received Rs 281 crore from Haldia Energy and Rs 90 crore from Dhariwal Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. IFB Agro Industries Ltd., a beverage company with its office in Kolkata, donated Rs 42 crore. Chennai Green Woods, a real estate firm, gave Rs 40 crore.

How Much Did Congress Get From Electoral Bonds?

Meanwhile, the Congress – which today saw the Delhi High Court reject its challenge to re-assessment proceedings by the Income Tax Department – received Rs 110 crore in bonds from Western UP Power Transmission Company Ltd., a Ghaziabad-based firm.

It also received bonds from Vedanta – Rs 104 crore.

MKJ Enterprises, described as a “pioneer in the stainless steel business in India”, donated Rs 69 crore. Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital donated Rs 64 crore. Future Gaming donated Rs 50 crore.

The companies on the list of major donors to political parties in India are involved in various business, ranging from construction and manufacturing to mining and real estate. These are sectors where the role of a government is key, whether to make rules or big-ticket decisions, like tax cuts.

New Delhi:

Hyderabad-based Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd (NEC), which is constructing the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand, a portion of which collapsed last year, purchased Rs 55 crore worth of electoral bonds and donated the entire amount to the BJP, as per data released by the Election Commission.

A total of 41 workers were trapped after a portion of the under-construction tunnel collapsed on November 12, 2023. The workers were rescued on November 28.

The Silkyara-Barkot tunnel project – cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in 2018 – was to be completed in 2022, but its deadline has been extended.

NEC purchased 55 electoral bonds of Rs 1 crore each between April 19, 2019 and October 10, 2022.

Navayuga Engineering, the flagship company of the Navayuga Group, is an engineering and core infrastructure company, according to information posted on the company’s website.

The company said it has constructed the Dhola-Sadia Bridge – the country’s longest river bridge – over the Brahmaputra river, spanning a total of 9.15 km.

NEC also claimed that it was entrusted with the responsibility of constructing the Polavaram Project by the Andhra Pradesh government.

As per the NEC’s website, it is responsible for many iconic projects, including bridges over the Ganga and the Quazigund to Banihal Highway project to ensure all-weather connectivity to north Kashmir through Pir Panjal Pas, a road prone to closure due to severe weather conditions.

The Silkyara-Barkot tunnel is a single-tube tunnel divided into two inter-connected corridors by a partition wall. Each inter-connected corridor can work as an escape passage for the other.

The 4.5-km tunnel project in Uttarakhand, which is part of the Centre’s 900-km Char Dham Yatra All Weather Road, aims to improve connectivity to the four pilgrimage sites.

A query sent to Navayuga Engineering did not elicit any response.

The electoral bond scheme was announced by then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech of 2017-18, pitching it as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency to political funding.

Under the scheme, the name of the donor was known only to banks. Electoral bonds are encashed by an eligible political party only through a bank account with the authorised bank.

However, the Supreme Court in February directed State Bank of India, which was the designated lender for issuing these bonds, to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties.

While directing SBI, the Supreme Court also annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, saying it violates the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression and the right to information.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The State Bank of India on Tuesday evening submitted data about electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India, in line with a stern order from the Supreme Court. The data will be collated and released by the poll panel by 5 pm Friday, as the court had ordered. The bank’s Chairman and Managing Director, however, has not yet filed the affidavit confirming compliance with the court order.

The affidavit, NDTV has been told, is ready and will be submitted to the court Wednesday.

The Supreme Court on Monday nixed a plea by the State Bank of India – the country’s largest bank – to extend the March 6 deadline to release this data. A bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud came down strongly on the bank for “willful disobedience” of orders, and warned it of contempt proceedings.

“While we are not inclined to exercise contempt jurisdiction at this time, we place SBI on notice that this court may be inclined to proceed against it for willful disobedience if it does not comply with directions by timelines indicated in this order,” the court had said.

READ | “Disclose Electoral Bonds’ Data By Tomorrow”: Court Junks SBI Plea

The bank argued it would take considerable time to collect, cross-check and release the data, which was stored in two “silos” to maintain confidentiality of both sides. “We need a little more time to comply. We were told this is supposed to be a secret,” the bank said, and asked for time till June 30.

READ | Matching Donor Details Takes Time, SBI Tells Supreme Court

That deadline is well past the completion of the 2024 general election.

In response the Supreme Court pointed out donor details were available at the SBI’s Mumbai branch, and the bank just had to “open covers, collate details and give information”. “We had not told you to do the matching exercise. We have asked you for a plain disclosure,” the Chief Justice rapped SBI.

Last month, in a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court held the electoral bond scheme to be “unconstitutional” and said it violated citizens’ right to information. The SBI had been directed to reveal data by March 6 and the poll panel to make this information public by March 13.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Monday came down strongly on the State Bank of India for “wilful disobedience” of last month’s order – that data about donors and recipients of electoral bonds be released by March 6.

In a significant development, the court warned SBI of contempt proceedings if it failed to release this data by close of business tomorrow. The court also directed the Chairman and Managing Director of SBI – India’s largest bank, with a 23 per cent market share – to file an affidavit after compliance.

“While we are not inclined to exercise contempt jurisdiction at this time, we place SBI on notice that this court may be inclined to proceed against it for wilful disobedience if it does not comply with directions by timelines indicated in this order,” the court said.

A bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud also directed the Election Commission of India to collect and publish all electoral bonds data on its website by 5 pm Friday.

READ | “Disclose Electoral Bonds’ Details By Tomorrow”: Top Court Rejects SBI Plea

The Supreme Court was hearing a plea by the SBI to extend a March 6 deadline to release all information about electoral bonds – donors and recipients. 

The bank argued it would take considerable time to collect, cross-check and release the data, which was stored in two “silos” to maintain confidentiality of both sides. “We need a little more time to comply. We were told this is supposed to be a secret.”

The bank had asked for time till June 30, which would be well after the general election.

READ | Matching Donor Details Takes Time, SBI Tells Supreme Court

In response the court pointed out donor details were available at the SBI’s Mumbai branch, and the bank just had to “open covers, collate details and give information”. The Chief Justice then asked the bank what work had been completed since its original order – 26 days ago. “Please tell what matching you have done in the last 26 days. There is a degree of candour expected from SBI…” he remarked.

READ | SBI Plea For Time To Submit Poll Bonds Info Dismissed: What Top Court Said

The court today also heard a pleas by the Association for Democratic Reform, or ADR, which was among the original challengers to the electoral bonds scheme launched by the government in 2017. It was to allow individuals and groups, including corporates, to make political donations with absolute anonymity.

The ADR had sought contempt action against the State Bank of India for “wilfully and deliberately” disobeyed the court’s order in this matter. The ADR claimed the extension was to obscure details of donors and donations before the April/May Lok Sabah election.

“It is submitted that the said application is mala fide and demonstrates a wilful and deliberate disobedience and defiance of judgement passed by Constitution bench of this court. It is further a clear attempt to undermine the authority of this court,” it said.

The bank’s request for extension was also criticised by Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal, who called it “puerile”.  He called on the court  to protect its dignity, particularly after a Constitution bench judgement.

READ | “Puerile Reason”: Kapil Sibal After SBI Seeks Extension Over Electoral Bonds

Last month, in a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court held the electoral bond scheme to be “unconstitutional” and said it violated citizens’ right to information. The SBI was directed to reveal all bonds data by March 6 and the poll panel to make this information available to the public by March 13.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.