Electoral Bonds a scam, needs SIT probe: Plea before Supreme Court

A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court of India seeking a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the electoral bonds scheme, which was recently struck down by the top court [Common Cause and Anr. v. Union of India]..The petition has been filed jointly by Common Cause and Centre for Public Interest Litigation (petitioners), both registered societies. The plea states that an SIT probe is required to unravel alleged conspiracies and scams carried out through the electoral bonds scheme, which enabled anonymous donations to political parties. .In this regard, the petitioners have raised the following concerns..1. Electoral bond data shows that the bulk of the bonds appear to have been given as quid pro quo arrangements by corporates to political parties. This has been done by donors for:getting contracts/ licences/ leases/ clearances/ approvals worth thousands and sometimes lakhs of crores and other benefits from the governments or authorities controlled by the governments which were in turn controlled by the political parties that received those bonds;securing "protection" to avoid or stall proceedings initiated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the Income Tax (IT) Department or to get relaxations for other regulators such as the drug controller;favourable policy changes. 2. Political donations through electoral bonds appear to have influenced contracts worth lakhs of crores. Regulatory inaction by agencies (allegedly in exchange for political donations through electoral bonds) also appears to have allowed substandard or dangerous drugs to be sold in the market, endangering the lives of millions of people in the country. 3. In several cases, the donations appear to have been made in blatant violation of Section 182(1) of the Companies Act which governs contributions by companies to political parties. This provision prohibits any government company or any company that is less than three years old from making contributions to political parties. Yet electoral bonds data disclosed that at least twenty companies bought electoral bonds within three years of their incorporation. Data has further shown that various loss-making companies and shell companies were donating huge sums to political parties through electoral bonds, especially to the ruling party. All of this raises concerns about the mushrooming of shell companies as conduits to launder illicit money to curry favour with ruling political parties. 4. Some of the country’s main investigative agencies such as the CBI, ED and the IT Department appear to have become accessories to corruption. Several firms that were under investigation by these agencies have donated large sums of money to the ruling party, potentially to influence the outcomes of probes..The petitioners claim that due to such concerns, the electoral bonds scheme has been called by many observers as the largest scam in India so far, and perhaps in the world.It is also noted that the electoral bonds scheme has a money trail, unlike the 2G scam or the coal scam cases where the Supreme Court had called for court-monitored probes despite no money trail. Therefore, the petitioners have now urged the top court to order a probe into the matter by an SIT comprising sitting or retired officers who are chosen by the Court. The SIT probe should be supervised by a retired Supreme Court judge, the petitioners have added. "The investigation in this case would not only need to unravel the entire conspiracy in each instance, which would involve officers of the company, officials of the government and functionaries of political parties but also the officers concerned of agencies like the ED/IT and CBI etc., who appear to have become part of this conspiracy," the plea stated. .The petition has been filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan and drawn by advocates Neha Rathi and Kajal Giri.