Opaque electoral bond scheme ensured bribes through banks, says Congress

Stepping up its attack on the BJP-led government over the electoral bonds issue, the Congress on Saturday said the "opaque scheme" ensured that prepaid, postpaid and even post-raid bribes could be routed through the banking channel.

The opposition party also reiterated its demand that there should be a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry into the issue.

At a press conference, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that this is the prime minister who gave a guarantee of 'bringing back black money' and instead "legalized corruption and is then desperately trying to hide it".

The opposition party also released a "python code" due to which, it claimed, it took less than 15 seconds to match the donors with political parties, "exposing the brazen and ridiculous claim of the SBI that it would take months to provide the data asked by the Supreme Court".

The Congress has highlighted four patterns of "blatant corruption" in the electoral bonds scam -? "Chanda Do, Dhanda Lo i.e. Prepaid Bribe; 'Theka Lo, Rishvat Do i.e. Postpaid Bribe; Hafta Vasooli i.e. Extortion/Post-raid Bribe; Farzi Company i.e. Shell Companies", he said.

Ramesh alleged that the analysis using the code has brought to light that 38 corporate groups which have got 179 major contracts and projects approvals from the central or BJP state governments have donated electoral bonds.

These companies have got a total worth of Rs 3.8 lakh crore in projects and contracts, in exchange for Rs 2,004 crore in electoral bonds donations to the BJP, Ramesh claimed.

He asserted that "when the INDIA bloc comes to power it would get the electoral bond scam investigated by an SIT".

He also said a JPC would be formed over the Adani matter and an SIT would also look into the PM-CARES Fund, if the INDIA bloc is voted to power.

Ramesh alleged 41 corporate groups have faced a total of 56 ED/CBI/IT raids and have given Rs 2,592 crore to the BJP, of which Rs 1,853 crore was given after raids, he claimed.