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The Supreme Court today pulled up State Bank of India for failing to share the complete data on electoral bonds. The bond number would reveal the crucial link between the donors and political parties. The scheme allowed individuals and businesses to donate anonymously to political parties. The top court struck down the scheme and directed the bank to share all details on the donations made to various political parties in the last 5 years. The court categorically said that the national bank should disclose the bond numbers, in addition to the details it has already disclosed regarding the purchase and redemption of the bonds. As per the details submitted so far, it is known that the ruling BJP received the highest amount of donation counting to more than Rs 6,000 crore followed by the Congress party. The data only disclosed the amount donated by each entity or individual. It does not reveal details of who donated to which party. The data dump also reveals details of various corporates which bought the bonds. Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd bought bonds worth Rs 398 crore, while Sunil Mittal’s three companies together purchased bonds totalling to Rs 246 crore. Steel magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal bought Rs 35 crore worth of bonds in his individual capacity. Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering, having secured several large infrastructure projects’ contracts, bought bonds worth Rs 966 crore. While most of the bonds have been issued in the name of political parties, the donations made to the Congress and the Samajwadi Party were made in the name of ‘President, All India Congress Committee’ and ‘Adyaksha Samajvadi Party’.
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