Much like Future Gaming, Vedanta Ltd and Megha Engineering, the top electoral bonds purchasers which The Indian Express reported Friday faced probes by Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department around the time of their purchases, major corporates such as RPSG’s Haldia Energy; DLF; pharma giant Hetero Drugs; Welspun Group; Divi’s Laboratories and Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw made significant purchases in the shadow of probes by Central agencies. The fourth largest buyer of electoral bonds, Haldia Energy, had been booked by the CBI in 2020 in a case of alleged corruption. An RPSG Group company, Haldia Energy purchased bonds worth Rs 377 crore between 2019 and 2024. In March 2020, CBI booked Haldia Energy along with 24 other companies, including Adani, Vedanta, Jindal Steel and BILT among others, for allegedly causing a loss of close to Rs 100 crore to Mahanadi Coal Fields Ltd (MCL). According to the CBI FIR, certain public officials “entered into criminal conspiracy, during year 2013 -2017, with 25 accused coal consumers and unknown Others, with an intention to defraud MCL in the matter relating to supply of coal by MCL through rail rake under Fuel Supply Agreements (FSAs) between MCL & said coal consumers.” DLF is another big bond buyer that has purchased bonds worth Rs 130 crore. The CBI registered the case against DLF New Gurgaon Homes Developers based on Supreme Court directions on November 1, 2017. On January 25, 2019, CBI raided the company’s offices in Gurugram and several other locations, in connection with a matter of alleged irregularities in allocation of land to the company. From October 9, 2019, the group started purchasing electoral bonds and, in all, bought Rs 130 crore worth. On November 25, 2023, the ED searched its Gurugram offices as part of a money laundering investigation against real estate firm Supertech and its promoters. When contacted, a DLF spokesperson said, “These are fully disclosed in our book of accounts for the respective years. We have no further comments.” Pharamaceutical giant Hetero Drugs is also among the big electoral bond purchasers. The company, along with its sister concerns Hetero Labs and Hetero Biopharma, bought bonds worth Rs 60 crore. The company has been under the Income Tax scanner since 2021. In October 2021, IT department carried out raids at the premises of the company and recovered cash in excess of Rs 140 crore. The department also claimed to have unearthed unaccounted income of Rs 550 crore. “During the search, several bank lockers have been found, out of which 16 lockers have been operated. The searches have resulted in the seizure of unexplained cash amounting to Rs 142.87 crore, so far,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement then. “Unaccounted income unearthed is estimated to be in the range of about Rs 550 crore till now,” it added. Months after this, in April, 2022, Hetero Drugs bought its first tranche of electoral bonds. The Welspun Group purchased bonds worth Rs 55 crore through various sister entities. The first tranche of its purchases between 2019 and 2024 was made in April 2019. These purchases came just over a year after the Income Tax Department raided the premises of Welspun Enterprises in July, 2017. Earlier, the company had faced probe by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a case of forex violations with agency slapping it with a penalty of Rs 55 crore in 2013. Welspun was also embroiled in a case of land allotment in Gujarat through an alleged quid pro quo arrangement with former state bureaucrat Pradeep Sharma. The ED arrested Sharma in connection with the case in 2016. Interestingly, two of the company’s then employees, who were involved in the deal, are now ED’s witnesses against Sharma, a development that an Ahmedabad court raised objection to in April 2023. Between February 14-18, 2019, the Income Tax department conducted raids at premises associated with Divi’s Laboratories. The company is one of the biggest API manufacturers in the world. In 2023, they bought bonds worth Rs 55 crore. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the founder of Biocon, has also purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 6 crore. Notably, the company came under scanner of the CBI in a corruption case in 2022. In June 2022, Biocon Biologics Associate Vice President L Praveen Kumar was arrested by CBI in connection with a case of bribery where S Eswara Reddy, the Joint Drug Controller (JDC) with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (COSCO), was caught allegedly accepting Rs 4 lakh in cash. According to the CBI FIR, Reddy had three files of Biocon Biologics Ltd pending with him for clearance and bribes had been allegedly negotiated for clearing all of them. Bicon had the denied all allegations. However, all of Shaw’s purchases came in April 2023. When contacted, Shaw told The Indian Express: “I have no comments (to offer). I have always talked about supporting elections and I have done my bit at a personal level. My company does not support political funding.” A major infrastructure firm, Patel Engineering, purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 6 crore. In April 2022, CBI booked Patel Engineering for irregularities in a hydel project in Jammu and Kashmir. The case was registered following allegations made by former Governor of the erstwhile state Satyapal Malik in a press statement. Beginning December that year, Patel Engineering began buying electoral bonds. In July 2020, promoters of Bhopal-based Som Distilleries were arrested by GST authorities for alleged tax evasion of Rs 8 crore. In October 2023, the company and its sister concern Som Distilleries Breweries Ltd bought electoral bonds worth Rs 2 crore. In November 2023, however, just ahead of Madhya Pradesh elections, the company was raided by Income Tax Department. Hyderabad-based Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) Limited purchased Rs 60 crore in electoral bonds in 2019 and 2022. On November 15, 2022, the Income Tax department, conducted searches on NCC for suspected tax evasion. Similarly, United Phosphorus India Limited, which bought bonds worth Rs 50 crore in 2019, was raided by Income Tax Department on January 22, 2020. All the companies mentioned above were contacted over email. Barring Shaw and DLF, none were available for comment.
