NEW DELHI : Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Friday described the electoral bonds scheme as a “very big scam” and demanded that a special investigation team (SIT) be set up with court-appointed officials to probe the alleged quid pro quo and wrongdoings under it.
Sibal, a senior advocate who is leading the arguments for the petitioners in a case in the Supreme Court against electoral bonds, alleged at a press conference here that the scheme was “illegal” and aimed at enriching a political party in such a manner that no other political party can compete with it.
His remarks came a day after the Election Commission (EC) put up the data on electoral bonds on its website.
Attacking the BJP-led Centre over the issue, Sibal said, “The person who started this scheme was our former finance minister (Arun Jaitley) and he thought that in this manner, no political party would be able to compete with us (BJP) and he was proven right. The one who has money can play the game.”
The Rajya Sabha MP said it has to be investigated which political party got how much donation.
“The question is whom the bonds went to? The bond numbers can be found out, it is a matter of investigation,” he said.
Asked about big business groups, such as Adani and Ambani, not featuring in the data, Sibal said, “We are jumping the gun. There may be a connection between some of those big companies and subsidiaries or some other kind of companies. This is too early to answer. That is why I have never made an allegation against any company, be it the big two or anyone else.”
“As far as I am concerned, it is a matter to be investigated but the larger issue is, this was an illegal scheme to enrich a political party in a manner in which no other political party can compete with it. Since there is an element of quid pro quo which is obvious, prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act will happen but because the Enforcement Directorate has taken an overdose of sleeping tablets, it may not happen immediately, but it will happen,” Sibal asserted.
Either the probe agencies will wake up or the court will wake them up, he added.
“As I said, there should be an SIT which should be set up with independent officers appointed by the court to investigate all this,” Sibal said.
Those prosecuted by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have been generous enough to give donations to political parties, he said.
It seems that against whomsoever there has been any proceeding initiated either by the ED or the CBI, they have given donations and then no further action was taken against them, he alleged.
“Then there are entities against whom no proceedings have been done but have vested interests and would have given money for that. That has to be matched. The third category is of shell companies,” Sibal said.
Then there would be donor companies that were incurring losses or those whose profit was lesser than the amounts they have donated and that also needs to be probed, he added.
“So this money is a form of bribe and that money, if it has been spent on elections, is a very big scam. As I said, there are two big scams in India — demonetisation and the other is this. Money had to come from Swiss banks but has come from these people,” the former Congress leader said, taking a swipe at the Centre.
He said there are some gaps that need to be filled through investigation.
“It also needs to be found out who paid what in PM-CARES. That too would have been given by industrialists,” Sibal said.
From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known company — Future Gaming and Hotel Services — were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations.
Following a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India (SBI), which was the authorised seller of electoral bonds, shared the data with the poll panel on March 12.
The top court had given the EC time till 5 pm on Friday to upload the data on its website.
The SBI has said a total of 22,217 electoral bonds of varying denominations were purchased by donors between April 1, 2019 and February 15 this year, out of which 22,030 were redeemed by political parties. ( With PTI Inputs
AS THE WORLD WILL SEE ON 21ST
SBI WILL NOT GIVE AFFIDAVIT
SOME OF THE REDEEMED BONDS ARE MISSIJNG
AND
MANY KYC FORMS WILL BE MISSING !
KYC MISSING MEANS THAT BUYER AND BOND NUMBER AND BJP CANNOT BE LINKED !
BUT THEN THERE WILL BE A BANK ENTRY !
NOW HERE AGAIN,PEOPLE WILL FIND THAT MANY OF THE “INDIVIDUAL” NAMES ARE BOGUS – WITH REAL AADHAR AND PAN !
THESE INDIVIDUALS WIRED MONEY FROM ACCOUNTS OPENED A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE EB AND NOW HAVE VANISHED ! ALL ADDRESSES ARE BOGUS ! LIKE IN DEMO !
SAME WILL APPLY FOR TRUSTS AND SOCIETIES !
NOW WE COME TO COMPANIES !
COMPANY “A” BUYS A BOND ! BUT THE PAYMENT IS FROM PERSON X !
KYC IS OF “A” – BUT PERSON X HAS OPENED A BOGUS BANK ACCOUNT JUST TO WIRE THE MONEY AND NOW HAS VANISHED !
NOW FOR “X” SBI HAS LOST THE KYC PAPERS !
NOW SOME WILL SAY THAT SBI HAD IRC (INWARD REMITTANCE CERTIFICATES) OF RS 1000 CRORES ON 1 DAY IN 100 TRANCHES OF 10 CRORES FROM 100 DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS – BUT IF THE KYC IS LOST THEN HOW WILL SBI KNOW WHICH 10 CRORES WAS FOR WHICH PARTY AND WHICH BOND NUMBER – UNLESS THE BOND NUMBER HAS A LINK TO THE IRC DATE AND IRC . SO SPMCL WILL HAVE 2 BOND NUMBER S ! 1 IS THE SPMCL NUMBER AND THE 2ND IS SBI NUMBER PRINTED BY SBI USING SPMCL TECHNOLOGY !
MAMMA MIA !
THAT IS Y YOU HAD THE ROUND FIGURE OF RS 1 CRORE PER BOND !
AND THAT IS Y THE DATA WAS KEPT MANUAL ! IT COULD HAVE BEEN FED (ONE WAY FEEDING WITH NO REPORTS OR PRINT OUTS) AND PASSWOED CHECKED BY CMD + BANKING SECRETARY ! – AND STAND ALONE -OFF THE WEB
BUT SBI KEPT IT MANUAL – SO THAT KYC FORMS CAN BE DESTROYED ! THE LINK TO THE 1ST BEARER OF THE BEARER BONDS ! ONCE KYC IS GONE,ANY DONOR CAN DENY THE BOND ! THE BANK TRANSFER WILL PROVE BOND BUYING BUT NOT LINK IT TO BOND NUMBER AND THUS THE BJP !
AND THAT WAS THE PLAN ! FROM DAY 1 !
THIS IS REALITY OF INDIA !
THE PLANNING OF CHAIWALA AND SBI
RTI ACT HAS A SECTION 22 WHICH SUPERESEDES ALL LAWS INCLUDING AEMYY ACT AND OSA
RTU ACT HAS A SECTION 7(9),WHICH STAES THAT INFORMATION “NOT READILY AVAILABLE”,IF SOUGHT IN A “fORM” CAN BE DENIED IF IT REQUIRES DISPROPORTIONATE EFFORT
TO PREEMPT THE RTI ACT ON EB,SBI DID NOT KEY IN THE EB DATA INTO THE CBS OF TCS !
SBI IT CELL COULD HAVE MADE A SOFTWARE TO “KEY IN” ALL THE BOND BUYERS AND REDEEMERS” DATA WOTH BOND NUMBERS — AND NO TOOL TO MAKE MIS REPORTS OR COPY DATA – JUST LIKE IN BARC AND NPCIL,BUT THEY DID NOT !
Y ?
AS NOW THEY CAN CLAIM THAT THE “RAW DATA”IS AVAILABLEL . BUT BOND NUMBER WISE DATA IS NOT “READILY AVAILABLE” U/S 7(9) OF THE RTI ACT -IN THE ” FORM” THAT THE SUPREME COURT SEEKS !
SO UNTILE THE 14TH OF FEB 2024, THE RTI APPLICANT HAD NO CHANCE TO GET THIS INFORMATION !
NOW WITH THE SC JUDGEMENT, THE PRECEDENT FOR “PUBLIC INTEREST” TO JUSTIFY A PUBLIC AUTHORITY TO MAKE RAW DATA INTO READILY AVAILABLE DATA IN THE FORM SOUGHT BH THE APPLICANT IS SET !
AND THAT IS THE REVOLUTION ! dindooohindoo
SBI IS HOODWINKING THE SC
THE AFFIDAVIT HAS THIS
The name of the purchaser of the bond,
The denomination and specific number of the bond,
The name of the party that has encashed the bond,
Last four digits of the bank account number of political parties,
The denomination and number of the bond encashed.
BUT NOT THE DATE OF BOND ISSUANCE AND DATE OF REDEMPTION !
NOW WHY IS THAT IMPORTANT !??
THAT WE WILL TELL LATER !