ED and IT had conducted searches on many firms which purchased electoral bonds

An analysis of firms which feature among the top purchasers of electoral bonds throws up many curious patterns. In some cases, either all of the bonds or a significant share was bought by the firms after the searches.

An analysis of firms which feature among the top purchasers of electoral bonds throws up many curious patterns. One of the common links is that a significant number of companies in the top donor list were under the Enforcement Directorate’s or the Income Tax Department’s scanner at some point of time in the past five years. In some cases, a chunk of the bonds were bought by these firms, in the days following such searches.

The Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR was the largest donor to political parties via the electoral bond route, with a cumulative sum of ₹1,368 crore. In May 2023, the ED had carried out searches at the residence of Santiago Martin in Chennai, the well known lottery magnate and the managing director of the company. The ED had also conducted searches in the business premises of the company in Coimbatore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). A year earlier in April 2022, ED had attached movable assets worth ₹411 crore under PMLA in the case of lottery scam against the company and its subsidiaries. Of the ₹1,368 crore worth bonds purchased by the company, 75% were done before the ED searches and 25% after the searches.

The other set of companies which followed a similar pattern are the Keventer Food Park Infra Ltd., the MKJ Enterprises Ltd. and the Madanlal Ltd. All these three firms are registered with the same address in Kolkata, West Bengal and have at least one common Director. The common director is Mr. Siddharth Gupta, but the three companies were incorporated in different years. MKJ Enterprises was incorporated in 1982, Madanlal in 1983 and Keventer Food Park was incorporated in 2010. These three companies together donated about ₹573 crore — the third highest — if purchases are considered cumulatively. Of the ₹573 crore, ₹195 crore worth bonds was purchased by Keventer Food Park Infra Ltd., in three batches between April and May 2019. ₹185 crore worth of bonds was purchased by Madanlal Ltd. between May 8 and 10, 2019.

Keventer Agro, a company which shares its e-mail domain with Madanlal and MKJ Enterprises, ran into controversy following a PIL filed by the West Bengal Congress unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury after the State government’s sale of its stake in Metro Dairy to Keventer Agro in 2017. The West Bengal government had divested its 47% shares in Metro Diary to Keventer Agro Limited for Rs 85 crore in 2017. In the same year, a Singapore-based private equity fund had picked up 15% shares of Keventer Agro for Rs 170 crore. Currently, Mr Mayank Jalan, is the managing director of Keventer Agro and is also a Director of Metro Dairy.

ED had started an investigation in the divestment of West Bengal government’s stake in the Metro Dairy in 2019. Summons were issued to several officials of the State Government including H.K. Dwivedi, who was the State’s finance secretary in 2017, when the shares of Metro Diary were divested. Summons were issued to the State government officials including Mr. Dwivedi in June 2020 and later in March 2021. In February 2021, searches were conducted by ED officials at the office of Keventer Agro Limited in Kolkata in connection with the probe.

The investigation lost its steam after the Calcutta High Court in June 2022 dismissed the PIL filed by Mr. Choudhury alleging lack of transparency in the divestment. The Supreme Court in September 2022 had upheld the Calcutta High Court order.

Yashoda Super Specialty Hospital Group in Hyderabad, whose premises were searched by the Income Tax department in December 2020, had donated ₹162 crores in multiple tranches beginning October 2021 and ending in October 2023.