SBI said no details other than complete account numbers & KYC were withheld from disclosure in terms of the Supreme Court order.
The State Bank of India on Thursday submitted complete details of the electoral bonds including the unique numbers to the Election Commission complying with the order of the Supreme Court. The top court on March 18 asked the SBI to make a complete disclosure of all details of the electoral bonds which are in its possession. With this, five things now will be known about electoral bonds — the name of the purchaser of a bond, the denomination and the specific number of the bond, the name of the party that has encashed the bond, the last four digits of the bank account number of the political parties, the denomination and the number of bonds encashed.
Earlier, the State Bank of India submitted the details of the purchasers and the amount and the fund the parties received, separately.
“The complete bank account numbers and KYC details of the political parties are not being made public as it may compromise the security of the account (cyber security). Similarly, KYC details of purchasers are also not being made public for security reasons, apart from the fact that such information of not fed/collated in the system. However, they are not necessary for identifying the political parties,” the SBI said in its affidavit to the Supreme Court.
The bank chairman told the Supreme Court that now it has no more undisclosed details regarding electoral bonds apart from the KYC details and the complete account numbers. The unique alphanumeric numbers help identify the bond and which party it went to. The Supreme Court noted that by withholding this number, SBI did not fully comply with the top court’s order of March 11 in which SBI was asked to disclose all details of electoral bonds.
According to the details disclosed earlier, the top purchaser of electoral bonds included Future Gaming and Hotel Services, owned by lottery king Santiago Martin.
While the majority of political parties have solely provided a chronological breakdown of the value of bonds they encashed, 10 recognised parties – AAP, DMK, AIADMK, Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF), Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Samajwadi Party, National Congress Party (NCP), and Janata Dal (United) – have included the names of donors along with the amounts they contributed. In its filing, Samajwadi Party disclosed total donations worth ₹10.84 crore, of which it said 10 bonds totalling ₹10 crore it received “by post (no name)”. For the remaining amount, it listed S K traders, San Beverages, A K Traders, K S Traders, B G Traders and A S Traders as donors.
