SBI faces Supreme Court wrath over hidden numbers, issued notice

The State Bank of India is dutybound and has to disclose the unique alphanumeric numbers of the electoral bonds received by political parties the Supreme Court said on Friday while seeking a response from the bank for not doing soA fivejudge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said the apex court in its verdict on electoral bonds case had directed the disclosure of all the details of bonds including the purchaser amount and date of purchaseSG Tushar Mehta speaks as a fivejudges constitution bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud hears on the Electoral Bonds case PicPTIAll details have to be furnished by the SBI the CJI observed a day after the Election Commission put out the entire list of entities that have purchased electoral bonds for making political donations The bench also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna B R Gavai J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notice to the SBI and posted the matter for hearing on March 18ldquoWho is appearing for the SBI Because in our judgement we had directed disclosure specifically of all details of the bonds including the purchaser the amount and the date of purchase They have not disclosed the bond numbers That has to be disclosed by the SBIrdquo the CJI said pulling up the bankThe unique alphanumeric numbers would match those who had purchased the electoral bonds to the parties they were donating toSantiago From labourer to Lottery KingSantiago Martin who has emerged to be the top buyer of electoral bonds as per the Election Commission has been under the ED radar for years Also known as the lsquoLottery kingrsquo Martinrsquos Future Games and Hotel Services bought electoral bonds worth R1368 crore Who is Martin And what are his business interests Martin based in Coimbatore in western Tamil Nadu is said to have started his life as a lsquolabourerrsquo and has a ragstoriches story behind him Although the lottery was banned in Tamil Nadu in 2003 many people still remember the name lsquoMartin Lotteryrsquo for all the wrong reasons such as raids by authorities In 2019 an accountant of a college in Coimbatore run by Martin was found dead following questioning by income tax authorities His company the Future Gaming Solutions India Pvt Ltd is the master distributor of Sikkim lotteriesMegha Engineering secondlargest donorMegha Engineering and Infrastructure the littleknown Hyderabadbased firm that in recent years won the prestigious Zojila tunnel deal among other projects forayed into city gas and acquired a media group was the second largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd MEIL bought a total of Rs 966 crore worth of bonds between financial years 201920 and 202324 the period when it won the project to build an allweather road tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir in 2020 as well as licenses to retail CNG and piped cooking gas in some cities The unlisted private firm was founded in 1989 by industrialist Pamireddy Pitchi Reddy as Megha Engineering Enterprises manufacturing pipes for municipalities It changed its name to Megha Engineering and Infrastructure in 2006 and went on to execute big infrastructure projects like dams natural gas distribution networks power plants and roadsReliancelinked firm third on listQwik Supply Chain Private Limited a littleknown company with registered address at Navi Mumbairsquos Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City DAKC and having links to Reliance Industries was the third largest donor to political parties using electoral bonds It bought R410 crore of electoral bonds between financial years 202122 and 202324 but Reliance said the company is not a subsidiary of any Reliance entity Electoral bond purchases and donations by Qwik Supply were behind Rs 1368 crore of Future Gaming and Hotel Services another littleknown lottery company and Rs 966 crore of Hyderabadbased Megha Engineering amp Infra according to information uploaded by the Election Commission on its website Publicly available information describes Qwik Supply as a manufacturer of warehouses and storage units The unlisted private company was incorporated on November 9 2000 with an authorised share capital of Rs 13099 crore Its paidup capital is Rs 12999 crore A Reliance Industries spokesperson said ldquoQwik Supply Chain Pvt Ltd is not a subsidiary of any Reliance entityrdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever