Aurobindo Pharma, a Hyderabad-based firm, bought electoral bonds worth Rs 5 crore on November 15, 2022. The purchase was made five days after P Sarath Chandra Reddy, one of its directors, was arrested in connection with a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, reported news agency PTI.
The company purchased electoral bonds (valuation Rs 52 crore) between April 3, 2021, to November 8, 2023, the report added.
According to electoral bonds data released by the Election Commission weeks ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, more than half of the electoral bonds purchased by Aurobindo Pharma went to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the PTI report stated.
Out of Rs 52 crore, the firm donated Rs 34.5 crore to the BJP, Rs 15 crore to the K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), and Rs 2.5 crore to N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which is contesting the 2024 general elections as part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the report added.
As per the data released by the Election Commission, the electoral bonds worth Rs 5 crore, purchased by Aurobindo Pharma following Mr Reddy arrest, were encashed by BJP on November 21, 2022.
Meanwhile, the electoral bonds worth Rs 3 crore, bought by the Hyderabad-based company on January 5, 2022, were encashed by the BJP on January 12, 2022, the report quoted EC data.
In May 2023, Mr Reddy was granted bail by the Delhi High Court on medical grounds in connection with the case, the PTI report mentioned. While granting him bail, Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma noted that Mr Reddy was in a "bad state" and qualified as "sick/infirm" to be released on bail.
Later in June last year, Mr Reddy turned approver in the case after a Delhi court allowed him to do so, the report said.
The Election Commission data also mentioned that Mr Reddy's company bought electoral bonds worth Rs 25 crore on November 8, 2023 and the BJP encashed this amount on November 17, 2023.
The data was released by the Election Commission on its website on March 21.
At the time of releasing the data, the EC spokesperson said, “In compliance of Hon'ble Supreme Court's directions, SBI has provided data pertaining to electoral bonds to ECI today ie March 21, 2024. ECI has uploaded it on its website as received from SBI on “as is where is basis”.
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