A total sum of Rs 23.30 crore in 14 parts each having Rs 1-3 crore in electoral bonds were provided to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress by three companies which happen to be linked to the party's former TMC Rajya Sabha MP Srinjoy Bose, according to a report by Indian Express.
Former MP Srinjoy was arrested in a Saradha chit fund case by the CBI. Notably, Bose is also the secretary of ISL club Mohun Bagan Super Giant.
These donations to the TMC began from July 2021, after the party won the Bengal Assembly elections and formed its government in May 2021.
According to the publication, Rs 11.50 crore in the form of electoral bonds were provided by the first company named Ripley & Co Stevedoring & Handling Pvt Ltd (RSHPL) in seven parts.
Additionally, Prashant Kumar Jaiswal - one of the company's directors, had donated Rs 4.30 crore separately in two batches since October 2023.
Out of the three companies, the second one—Netincon Marketing Pvt Ltd—donated Rs 3 crore to the party in January 2022. Data also unveiled that the company's net profit in the year 2021-22 was Rs 22.30 lakh.
According to Indian Express, Arrow Projects Pvt Ltd, the third company partly owned by the Bose family, provided TMC with Rs 4.5 crore in electoral bonds in four batches from October 2022 till July 2023. The latest data about the company showed that its net profit in the year 2021-22 was Rs 20.19 lakh.
Other than TMC, since April 2019, there is no data about these three firms providing money in the form of electoral bonds to any other political party.
Srinjoy resigned from the post of the Ripley's director in 2010, according to the data of Registrar of Companies (RoC), following which he transferred 49 per cent of his shares in 2014 under his mother Sampa Bose's name.
According to Indian Express, Srinjoy, now as a permanent employee at Ripley, receives an annual salary of Rs 1.80 crore.
The Bose family hold 85 per cent stake in Ripley with Srinjoy's brother Shoumik Bose having 43 per cent, Sampa Bose having 40 per cent in the RSHPL trust and Prashant Kumar Jaiswal holding 1.66 per cent.
The publication reported that Srinjoy refused to comment when approached regarding the news.
According to IE, in 2011, Srinjoy became the TMC's Rajya Sabha MP and was arrested by the CBI in 2014. He was arrested in connection with Ponzi scam which involved the Saradha Group, with charges of criminal conspiracy, misappropriation of funds and acquiring financial benefits.
IE said that Bose resigned from the Rajya Sabha and the TMC membership saying that politics was not his 'cup of tea'. His resignation came one day after he was released on bail in February 2015.
Srinjoy was the editor of the TMC mouthpiece Jago Bangla, until he was arrested by CBI in 2014.
A company named Mohun Bagan Football Club which was led by Srinjoy's father who is also a former TMC Mp Swapan Sadhan Bose, also saw Srinjoy as its director until December 2021.
Initially involved in trade at different ports in seven divisions in India, Ripley was set up in Kolkata in 2000.
The net profits that the firm made in years 2021-22 and 2022-23 were Rs 121.14 crore and Rs 135.75 crore respectively.
In Ripley, according to the data by RoC in 2006, Bose brothers held 98 per cent shares with 49 per cent each, along with Jaiswal who held 2 per cent.
These 98 per cent stakes were with both the brothers until 2014, when the shares were transferred to their mother.
The second company named Netincon is into wholesale trading along with transport and storage services and the third firm Arrow issues services in transport, security and storage and was set up in 2009.
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