3 of top 5 donors bought electoral bonds with ED and I-T knocking on their door

The No. 1 purchaser of electoral bonds in the data released by the Election Commission Thursday is Future Gaming and Hotels Pvt Ltd run by Santiago Martin. The lottery company has purchased bonds worth Rs 1,300 crore between 2019 and 2024.

Notably, ED began a money laundering probe against Future Gaming in early 2019. By July that year, it had attached assets worth over Rs 250 crore belonging to the company. On April 2, 2022, the ED attached movable assets worth Rs 409.92 crore in the case.

On April 7, five days after the attachment of these assets, Future Gaming bought Rs 100 crore in electoral bonds.

The ED initiated investigation under the provisions of PMLA against Santiago Martin and his company M/s Future Gaming Solutions (P) Ltd (Presently M/s Future Gaming and Hotel Services (P) Ltd and formerly Martin Lottery Agencies Ltd) on the basis of a chargesheet filed by Central Bureau of investigation (CBI). According to ED, Martin and others entered into a criminal conspiracy to violate the provisions of Lottery Regulation Act, 1998 and to obtain wrongful gain by cheating Sikkim Government.

“Martin and his associates made illegal gain to the extent of Rs 910.3 crores on account of inflating the prize winning tickets claim for the period from 01.04.2009 to 31.08.2010,” ED said in a statement on July 22, 2019.

In the 2019-2024 period, the company bought its first tranche of electoral bonds on October 21, 2020.

The second largest donor to political parties is Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL) which has bought bonds worth Rs 1000 crore between 2019 and 2024. Run by Krishna Reddy, Megha Engineering is involved in marquee projects of the Telangana government such as the Kaleswaram Dam project. It is also building the Zojila tunnel and the Polavaram dam.

The top 20 electoral bond purchasers

In October 2019, the Income Tax department raided the offices of the company. Following this, a probe by Enforcement Directorate was also started. Incidentally, on April 12 that year, MEIL had purchased poll bonds worth Rs 50 crore.

Last year, the government rejected a $1-billion investment proposal of Chinese electric car maker BYD and its Hyderabad-based partner MEIL to set up an electric vehicle manufacturing plant.

Anil Aggarwal’s Vedanta Group is the fifth largest donor having purchased bonds worth Rs 376 crore with the first tranche being purchased in April 2019 in the period.

Notably, in mid-2018, ED claimed it had evidence related to Vedanta Group’s alleged involvement in the bribe-for-visa case where certain Chinese nationals were given visas by alleged bending of rules.

A reference sent by ED to CBI translated into a case of corruption in 2022 following which ED began a money laundering probe. On April 16, 2019, Vedanta Ltd purchased bonds worth over Rs 39 crore.

Over the next four years, barring the pandemic year of 2020, till November 2023, it bought bonds worth Rs 337 crore more taking the cumulative value of bonds bought by Vedanta to over Rs 376 crore.

Jindal Steel and Power, too, is among the top 15 donors with the company having donated Rs 123 crore through the bonds in the period. While the company has faced probes by Central agencies in the coal blocks allocation case, the ED raided the premises of the company and its promoter Navin Jindal in connection with a fresh case of forex violation in April 2022.

The company made its first tranche of purchases between 2019 and 2024 on October 7, 2022.

Apart from this, Rithwik Projects Pvt Ltd has purchased bonds to the tune of Rs 45 crore in this period. Rithwik Projects is owned by politician CM Ramesh. In October 2018, the Income Tax department raided premises associated with the company and Ramesh, who was then a TDP MP.

The IT department alleged the company had siphoned off Rs 100 crore. Months later, Ramesh joined the BJP.

Aurobindo Pharma, which is embroiled in the Delhi liquor case, has also made donations of Rs 49 crore in the period. ED had arrested company director P Sarath Reddy in November 2022 in the case. While the company made donations of about Rs 2.5 crore in 2021, majority of its electoral bond purchases were made in 2022 and 2023.

Rashmi Cement, which has donated Rs 64 crore to political parties, has been under ED scanner since 2022. On July 13, 2022, the ED carried out a searches at three places in West Bengal, in the case of “Rashmi Group of Companies” related to the loss of Rs 73.40 crore to public exchequer “by deliberately mis-declaring the facts and mis-utilizing the dual freight policy of the Indian Railways to avail the wrongful benefits of lower tariff of freight for transportation of iron ore”.

Similarly, Shirdi Sai Electricals, which purchased bonds worth Rs 40 crore in January this year, was raided by the IT department last year.