The State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Dinesh Khara on Thursday, March 21, filed a compliance affidavit in the Supreme Court saying that all details of electoral bonds, including the alphanumeric numbers, have been disclosed to the Election Commission.
"On March 21, 2024, the SBI provided/disclosed all details of the Electoral Bonds which are in its possession and custody to the Election Commission of India," the affidavit of SBI stated.
On March 18, the top court pulled up the bank for not disclosing all the details and said it "cannot be selective".
In compliance with the Supreme Court's directive, the SBI shared the data with the Election Commission on March 12. Subsequently, the EC published the details on its website, dividing them into sections listing the buyers and the beneficiary parties, ahead of the court-imposed deadline.
The data revealed that the biggest donor is a little-known lottery company called Future Gaming and Hotel Services. Future Gaming and Hotel Services purchased possibly the highest amount of bonds worth ₹1,368 crore, followed by Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd at ₹966 crore.
The data only disclosed the amount donated by each entity or individual and not who donated to which party. The ruling BJP received the highest amount of donation followed by the Congress party.
The SBI, in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, disclosed that between April 1, 2019, and February 15 this year, a total of 22,217 electoral bonds of various denominations were purchased by donors. Out of which 22,030 were redeemed by political parties.
First Published: Mar 21, 2024 3:47 PM IST
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