BJP govt printed Electoral Bonds worth Rs 8,350 Cr after SC reserved verdict on scheme: RTI
New Delhi: A Right to Information (RTI) query by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra has revealed that the Narendra Modi government printed a substantial number of electoral bonds in 2024. Specifically, 8,350 electoral bonds valued at Rs 1 crore each were printed during this period. The bonds were printed after the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on the constitutionality of the electoral bond scheme in November 2023.
The State Bank of India (SBI), the authorized bank for issuing electoral bonds, provided this information in response to Batra's RTI query.
The total value of these bonds, amounting to Rs 8,350 crores, exceeds the cumulative amount accumulated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through the scheme since its inception. According to data published by the Election Commission, the BJP has received Rs 8,251.8 crores in electoral bonds since 2018, constituting approximately 50% of all bonds sold during this period, totaling Rs 16,518 crore.
Previous RTI filings by Batra had already established that taxpayers, rather than donors or political parties, bear the expenses associated with printing and managing electoral bonds. The SBI had charged the government Rs 13.50 crore for its commission, printing, and other operational expenses related to the Electoral Bonds Scheme between 2018 and 2023.
The motivation behind printing a significant number of electoral bonds in 2024, despite the ongoing legal scrutiny of the scheme, remains a subject of speculation. Batra suggested that the government's confidence in the Supreme Court maintaining the status quo might have prompted this decision.
“It appears that the government was confident that the Supreme Court would maintain the status quo. That was why it went ahead with printing more bonds of Rs 1 crore,” Batra was quoted as saying in a The Wire’s report.
However, the Supreme Court's ruling on February 15 dealt a blow to the electoral bond scheme, declaring it unconstitutional and a violation of voters' right to information. Consequently, the court directed the SBI to furnish details of the bonds to the Election Commission. The cost incurred for printing and managing the additional 8,350 bonds this year is yet to be disclosed.
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Man arrested with Rs 2.54-crore heroin in Mumbai
Mumbai (PTI): Police have arrested a man and seized over 500 grams of heroin worth Rs 2.54 crore in the illicit market from him in Mumbai, officials said on Friday.
The police's Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) made the drug seizure in Santacruz in the western suburbs. The operation was conducted by the Kandivali unit of the ANC on Thursday as part of a special crackdown against drug trafficking in the area, they said.
Acting on specific inputs, an ANC team conducted a raid in Santacruz (East) and intercepted a man. During a search, the team recovered 508 grams of high-grade heroin from his possession, an official said.
The seized contraband, a highly addictive, opioid drug derived from morphine, is estimated to be worth Rs 2.54 crore in the international market, he informed.
Following the seizure, a case was registered against the man under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and he was formally placed under arrest in the early hours of Friday.
The police are currently investigating the source of the drug and trying to identify the intended recipients of the consignment, he said.
