Plea in Supreme Court seeks SIT probe into Electoral Bonds scam

The PIL claimed the bulk of the bonds appeared to have been given as quid pro quo arrangements by corporates to political parties for getting contracts or licences.

New Delhi: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court for an Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into alleged pay offs and quid pro quo arrangements between corporates and governments, "shockingly" in conspiracy with investigative and regulatory bodies, as revealed in donations made to political parties through the Electoral Bonds Scheme.

The PIL filed jointly by NGOs 'Common Cause' and 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation' through advocate Prashant Bhushan claimed the bulk of the bonds appeared to have been given as quid pro quo arrangements by corporates to political parties for getting contracts or licences or leases or clearances or approvals worth thousands and sometimes lakhs of crores.

"In some instances, it has been seen that the political parties in power at the centre or in states have apparently amended policies and/or laws to provide benefits to private corporates at the cost of public interest and the

public exchequer," it said.

On PILs by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms and others, the Supreme Court's five-judge Constitution bench had on February 15 quashed the Electoral Bonds scheme and directed the SBI to provide all the data related to it to the Election Commission for uploading on its website.

It was revealed that electoral bonds worth about Rs 16,518 crore were encashed by the political parties.

Terming the scheme as a scam, the plea said it needs to be investigated by a SIT of sitting or retired officers of impeccable integrity and working under the supervision of a retired judge of this court. 

The plea alleged electoral bonds were given in close proximity to action by agencies like the ED/IT/CBI raising suspicion of it being “protection” money or "bribe" to avoid or stall action by or in exchange for regulatory inaction by various regulators like the drug controller etc or as a consideration for favourable policy changes. 

"Though these apparent pay offs amount to several thousand crores, they also appear to have allowed substandard or dangerous drugs to be sold in the market, endangering the lives of millions of people in the country," the plea claimed.

The plea also stated in several cases, the donations appear to have been made in blatant violation of the regulatory framework governing contributions by companies to political parties. 

Claiming violation of Section 182(1) of the Companies Act, it claimed the data disclosed on electoral bonds, showed that at least 20 companies bought electoral bonds within three years of their incorporation. 

"The donation by such companies total more than Rs 100 crores. In some cases, the companies were just a few months old when they purchased bonds, in flagrant violation of the provisions of the Companies Act," it said.

The plea stated data further showed that various loss-making companies and shell companies donated huge sums to political parties through electoral bonds and in this way, laundered money has found its way into the coffers of the political parties.

It also sought a direction to investigate source of funds of these shell or loss companies.

The plea said unlike the 2G Scam or the Coal Scam, where allocations of spectrum and coal mining leases were arbitrarily made, and did not have money trail, yet this court ordered court-monitored investigations in both those cases, appointed special public prosecutors and formed special courts to deal with those cases.

In the Electoral Bond scam, some of the country’s main investigative agencies such as the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department appeared to have become accessories to corruption, so the investigation would not only need to unravel the entire conspiracy but also probe the officers concerned of agencies like the ED/IT and CBI etc who appear to have become part of this conspiracy.