NGO files petition in Supreme Court seeking SIT probe into electoral bond scheme

A Delhi-based NGO has filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking a special investigation team (SIT) to probe into what it alleges to be a scam involving electoral bonds. 

The petition filed by Common Cause and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), request a court-monitored investigation by an SIT into potential instances of quid pro quo agreements between corporations and political parties as part of electoral bond donations.

It also alleged that the Electoral Bond data released last month on the orders of the apex court shows that majority of these were given as “quid pro quo” arrangements by corporates to political parties either for fiscal gains or for avoiding actions by central agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax department.

The plea demanded an independent investigation to uncover a scam involving crores of rupees in the electoral bonds scheme.

"The electoral bond scam presents an actual money trail, in contrast to the 2G or Coal Scam, where allocation of spectrum and coal mining leases were made arbitrarily without evidence of a money trail,” the plea said.

“Though these apparent pay offs amount to several thousand crores, they appear to have influenced contracts worth lakhs of crores and regulatory inaction by agencies worth of thousands of crores and 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. That is why the electoral bonds scam has been called by many astute observers as the largest scam in India so far, and perhaps in the world,” stated the petition filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan on April 18.

The plea further claimed that central investigating agencies like CBI, ED and the Income Tax department are complicit in these corrupt dealings, adding that firms who were under investigation by these bodies have made substantial donations to the ruling party, in order to influence the outcomes of their probes.

In February, the Supreme Court had declared the opaque electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional and in violation of Article 19(1)(a). 

The court then instructed the State Bank of India to disclose details of both the purchaser and recipient of these electoral bonds, and the Election Commission of India was asked to upload the entire Electoral Bond data on its website for the public to see.