Electoral Bonds: PIL for SIT probe into ‘quid pro quo’ between firms, parties

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, April 24

Alleging a scam in the electoral bonds scheme declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, a PIL on Wednesday urged the top court to order a court-monitored SIT probe into the instances of “apparent quid pro quo between public servants, political parties, commercial organisations, companies, officials of investigation agencies and others”.

“An analysis of the data as published by the ECI on its website exposed how quid pro quo arrangements have potentially been made between large corporates and political parties in the last six years through the use of electoral bonds. The data makes it apparent that private companies paid crores to political parties apparently either as “protection money” for protection against agencies under the Central government or as a “bribe” in return for undue benefits,” the PIL alleged.

Filed by Common Cause and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), the PIL alleged that “in some instances, it has been seen that the political parties in power at the Centre or in states have brazenly amended policies and laws to apparently provide benefits to private promoters of large projects at the cost of public interest”. The PIL sought an “order or direction to the authorities to probe the source of funding of shell firms and loss-making companies to various political parties, as has been disclosed through the electoral bonds data”.

It also demanded “a writ, order or direction to the authorities to recover the amounts from parties as donated by companiesas part of quid pro quo arrangements where these are found to be proceeds of crime”.

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