The complaint filed in April alleged that large sums of money were collected through Electoral Bonds between 2019 and 2022 from a businessman via his firm and also from a pharma company.
Published Sep 28, 2024 | 12:05 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 28, 2024 | 10:01 PM
File photo of Nirmala Sitharaman. (X)
An FIR was registered on Saturday against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials, and some BJP leaders. This is in connection with a complaint relating to the electoral bonds.
The FIR was registered under sections 384 (punishment for extortion) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) on the directions of a special court in the city.
The complaint stated that Union Minister Sitharaman and ED officials committed extortion under the pretext of electoral bonds and benefited to the tune of over ₹8,000 crore.
The Special Court for People’s Representatives in Bengaluru had on Friday directed the police to register an FIR against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman along with others for crimes of extortion through Electoral Bonds.
The court gave the orders while hearing the petition filed by Adarsh Iyer, co-president, of Janaadhikaara Sangharsha Parishath (JSP), who had filed a complaint against the union minister and others.
The 42nd ACMM of the Special Court of People’s Representatives, Bengaluru then ordered the filing of an FIR to the jurisdictional SHO of Tilak Nagar police station.
The complaint filed in April alleged that large sums of money were collected through Electoral Bonds between 2019 and 2022 from a businessman’s company and also from a pharma company.
Speaking to South First, Adarsh the petitioner says that there were a large number of people involved in this.
Nirmala Sitharam according to him, has misused her power as the head of ED and IT departments and used them to conduct raids. “Through Electoral Bonds, she has benefitted her own party’s treasury in this way,” he said adding, “This is a serious case of extortion and they have to be punished for that.”
Adarsh has also filed 15 more complaints with the Tilak Nagar police station that have not yet been acted upon.
“There are so many other companies which faced extortion. We have studied the data submitted by SBI and compared that with the timeline of raids, arrests and bail granted,” he said.
The police now have to register an FIR, oblige the court’s orders and conduct a thorough investigation, Adarsh said.
A five-judge constitution bench of the apex court had on 15 February, 2024, scrapped the electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding introduced by the BJP government.
Following a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India, the authorised financial institution under the scheme, shared the data with the Election Commission (EC), which later made them public.
The electoral bonds scheme, which was notified by the Union government on 2 January 2018, was pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of its efforts to bring transparency in political funding.
(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula)
