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What the published data showed

Published 5 October 2026

What the SBI said it sold and redeemed

The SBI affidavit, as The Hindu reported it on March 13, 2024, said 22,217 bonds were purchased and 22,030 redeemed between April 1, 2019 and February 15, 2024. It split these as follows: From April 1 to April 11, 2019, 3,346 bought and 1,609 redeemed; from April 12, 2019 to February 15, 2024, 18,871 bought and 20,421 redeemed. The numbers add up (3,346 plus 18,871 is 22,217; 1,609 plus 20,421 is 22,030). The Hindu notes that although the Court had asked only for data from April 12 onward, the bank said selling and redeeming began on April 1. Source: The Hindu, SBI affidavit of Mar 13, 2024

Where sources differ: The Court's March 11 order repeats the SBI's application loosely as "between 12 April 2019 to 15 February 2024". ADR's phase table shows the 22,217 bonds are the windows from April 1, 2019 onward, which matches the affidavit and not the order's wording. In short, the SBI told the Court that 22,217 bonds were sold from April 1, 2019, of which 18,871 were sold on or after April 12, 2019, the date from which the Court ordered disclosure. Source: The Hindu, SBI affidavit of Mar 13, 2024

The sale record, phase by phase

ADR compiled this table from SBI replies to its RTI applications (March 2018 to January 2024). There were thirty sale windows over 714 days. In total, 28,030 bonds worth Rs 16,518.1099 crore were sold, and parties redeemed 27,811 bonds worth Rs 16,492.4722 crore. A further 219 bonds worth Rs 25.6377 crore, 0.16 percent of the value sold, were credited to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) under Clause 12(2) of the scheme because they were not encashed in time. The 30 phase counts add up to 28,030. ADR's page of March 15, 2024 repeats the Rs 16,518 crore total. Source: ADR, updated data on electoral bonds

Source: ADR, updated data on electoral bonds

Values are in Rs crore, rounded by ADR. Phase IX is shown by ADR as 34 days, with the sale extended around the general election, and Phase XXIII as 16 days in ADR's day column. Some windows had bonds credited to the PMNRF: Phase III had 10 bonds worth Rs 10.00 crore (9.86 percent of the value in that window, the highest share of any window); Phase VIII had 4 bonds (Rs 1.00 crore); Phase IX had 74 bonds (Rs 5.05 crore); Phase X had 34 bonds (Rs 3.00 crore); Phase XXII had 3 bonds (Rs 3.00 crore); and Phase XXX, the last window, had 25 bonds (Rs 1.75 crore). The Court stopped issuance on February 15, 2024. Source: ADR, updated data on electoral bonds

Reading ADR's table: The biggest windows by value are Phase IX (April 2019, Lok Sabha election), Phase VIII (March 2019), Phase XIX (January 2022, before the 2022 state elections), Phase XXVIII (October 2023) and Phase XXIX (November 2023). The Hindu's data team ties the January 2022 window to elections in Uttarakhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Manipur . Source: ADR, updated data on electoral bonds

How the 22,217 figure resolves

Phases I to VIII (March 2018 to March 15, 2019) add up to 5,813 bonds. 28,030 minus 5,813 is 22,217, so the SBI's "22,217 bonds" is the count for the windows from Phase IX (April 1, 2019) to the end. Within that, the SBI says 3,346 were bought April 1 to 11, 2019 and 18,871 from April 12, 2019, and 22,217 minus 3,346 is 18,871, so the SBI figures are internally consistent. The value of Phases IX to XXX is about Rs 13,745 crore when ADR's phase values are added; ADR does not state this subtotal. Source: ADR, updated data on electoral bonds

Party-wise redemption: Two numbers for the BJP

ADR, working from the ECI data as it stood on March 14, 2024, found that between April 12, 2019 and February 15, 2024 20,421 bonds worth Rs 12,769.0893 crore were encashed. The BJP encashed 8,633 bonds worth Rs 6,060.5111 crore (47.462 percent); AITC 3,305 bonds worth Rs 1,609.5314 crore (12.605 percent); INC 3,146 bonds worth Rs 1,421.8655 crore (11.135 percent); and BRS 1,806 bonds. At the other end, AIADMK encashed 38 bonds worth Rs 6.05 crore (0.047 percent) and SDF 10 bonds worth Rs 5.50 crore (0.043 percent). ADR did not combine one Shiv Sena entry (1 bond, Rs 1 crore) because it is unclear which faction the entry relates to. Source: ADR, party-wise bonds encashed

The Hindu, reporting PTI copy on March 17, 2024 (updated March 22), gave different party totals from the second ECI data set: BJP Rs 6,986.5 crore, Trinamool Rs 1,397 crore, Congress Rs 1,334 crore, BRS Rs 1,322 crore, BJD Rs 944.5 crore, DMK Rs 656.5 crore, YSR Congress about Rs 442.8 crore, TDP Rs 181.35 crore, JD(S) Rs 89.75 crore, Shiv Sena Rs 60.4 crore, RJD Rs 56 crore, SP Rs 14.05 crore, Akali Dal Rs 7.26 crore, AIADMK Rs 6.05 crore and National Conference Rs 50 lakh, with the CPI(M) and BSP declaring no bond funds. It also noted that the DMK "was among the few political parties to disclose the identity of the donors" in its own filing, while the BJP, Congress, TMC and AAP did not. Source: The Hindu, ECI makes fresh bond data public

The two BJP numbers differ because they come from different data sets and periods. ADR's Table 3 gives the sealed-cover figure as Rs 6,987.4008 crore; the press figure of Rs 6,986.5 crore differs from it by about Rs 0.9 crore, and the sources do not explain the gap. Source: ADR, three data sets

Three data sets

ADR's analysis of party-wise redemption explains why three sets of numbers exist. In the October 2023 hearings the Court "reiterated its 2019 order and directed the ECI to give the details of Electoral Bond donations received by parties till September 2023". On March 11, 2024 the Court directed the ECI to publish the sealed-cover details, and the SBI supplied data from April 12, 2019 to February 15, 2024 under the February 15 and March 11 orders. There are therefore (1) the parties' own audit reports (financial years 2017-18 to 2022-23), (2) the SBI data (April 12, 2019 to February 15, 2024) and (3) the parties' filings in sealed covers (March 2018 to September 2023). Source: ADR, three data sets

Table 1 below sets out the audit-report figures. The BJP's figures are identical to those in Justice Khanna's table. AAP reported bonds and trusts together in its audit reports, but separately in the sealed covers, so ADR derives what came from trusts: Rs 90 lakh (FY22-23), Rs 21.12 crore (FY21-22), Rs 1.70 crore (FY20-21), Rs 12.2651 crore (FY19-20) and Rs 63 lakh (FY18-19). Source: ADR, three data sets

Source: ADR, three data sets

Year splits for the BJP (audit reports): FY17-18 210.0002; FY18-19 1,450.8905; FY19-20 2,555.0001; FY20-21 22.385; FY21-22 1,033.70; FY22-23 1,294.1499. In the SBI data, the BJP's total of Rs 6,060.5111 crore breaks down as FY19-20 (from April 12, 2019) 2,024.7501; FY20-21 22.385; FY21-22 1,033.70; FY22-23 1,294.1499; FY23-24 1,685.5261. For AITC, FY23-24 in the SBI data is 612.4238, and for INC 828.36. In the sealed covers, the BJP's FY23-24 figure (to September only) is 421.2751. Source: ADR, three data sets

The Rs 6,986.5 crore figure in the PTI and Hindu report of March 17 is the sealed-cover set, which starts in March 2018 and stops in September 2023. The Rs 6,060.5 crore figure is the SBI set, which starts April 12, 2019 and runs to February 15, 2024. They are different periods, not an error. ADR's own warning is that "The data disclosed by the party in sealed cover to ECI/annual audit report and its data as per SBI disclosures don't match completely as per preliminary observations. Few entries mentioned in SBI disclosures were not mentioned by the party in the details provided in sealed covers to ECI. This is true for FY 2020-21 & FY 2021-22." The three sets should not be presented as one series. Source: ADR, three data sets

Denominations

ADR's denomination-wise table of encashed bonds (April 12, 2019 to February 15, 2024; the partial table read here) shows the major parties' value was overwhelmingly in Rs 1 crore bonds. The BJP encashed Rs 5,854 crore in Rs 1 crore bonds, 47.956 percent of all Rs 1 crore bonds encashed; AITC Rs 1,467 crore (12.017 percent); INC Rs 1,318 crore (10.797 percent). Source: ADR, denomination-wise data

Source: ADR, denomination-wise data

This bears on para 103 of the judgment, where the Court said "ninety four percent of the contributions through electoral bonds have been made in the denomination of one crore". Dividing ADR's figures, Rs 1 crore bonds were about 96.6 percent of the BJP's Rs 6,060.5 crore, 91.1 percent of AITC's Rs 1,609.5 crore, 92.7 percent of INC's Rs 1,421.9 crore and 97.2 percent of BRS's Rs 1,214.7 crore. The ADR tables support the direction of the Court's figure. The 94 percent is the Court's own all-party figure. Source: ADR, denomination-wise data

The donors as published

The ECI published the SBI purchaser data on Thursday, March 14, 2024, the second data set (sealed covers) on Sunday, March 17, 2024, and the unique alphanumeric numbers on and after March 21, 2024. Outlets covered different windows. The Hindu's data team says Future Gaming's Rs 1,368 crore was bought "during the period April 12, 2019 to January 24, 2024". ThePrint says the data it read covers "12 April, 2019, to 11 January this year". The Quint gives January 24, 2024 as the end date for its top-30 analysis. Where sources differ: January 11, 2024 is the last sale window in ADR's table, and January 24, 2024 is the last redemption date the Hindu cites for the periods in its tables, which fits the two outlets giving different end dates for the same data. Source: The Hindu data, Future Gaming and Hotel Services

Future Gaming and Hotel Services. The firm of lottery businessman Santiago Martin is the largest purchaser in the data, at Rs 1,368 crore, all in Rs 1 crore bonds according to ThePrint. The Hindu reports that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) "attached proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 411 crore" and filed a prosecution complaint on September 9, 2023. Where sources differ on the ED action: The Hindu says attachments came in March 2022 and a complaint on September 9, 2023; ThePrint says the ED statement was on September 22, 2023; The Quint says over Rs 409 crore. The amount should not be stated without naming the source. ThePrint also reports that the ED alleged "unlawful gain" of Rs 910 crore by causing loss to the Sikkim government through inflated prize-ticket prices between 2009 and 2010, based on a CBI final report. These are allegations by the agencies as reported, not court findings. Source: ThePrint, top donors

Newslaundry, writing for Project Electoral Bond, says the ED attached the company's assets "from April 2022 to May 2023". It also says the company bought Rs 303 crore in the period of the September 2022 and April 2023 raids, and that its purchases ran "between October 2020 and January 2024". Where sources differ: The Quint says October 27, 2020 to October 5, 2023. Of Future Gaming's Rs 1,368 crore, The Hindu data page says "nearly 37 per cent went to the DMK", or Rs 509 crore. The Hindu's donor-by-party page of March 21, 2024 puts Future Gaming's gift to the Trinamool Congress at Rs 542 crore, and says the DMK's total from all donors was Rs 656.5 crore. Source: Newslaundry, Project Electoral Bond

Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL). ThePrint reports Rs 966 crore, all in 966 bonds of Rs 1 crore, with the first purchase in April 2019 and the last on October 12, 2023. It also reports that four Rs 1 crore bonds were bought on October 3, 2019, a week before Income Tax raids, and that Rs 140 crore was bought on April 11, 2023, a month before a Rs 14,400 crore Thane-Borivali twin tunnel contract. Newslaundry says Rs 980 crore from April 2019 to November 2023. Where sources differ: ThePrint and The Quint say Rs 966 crore, Newslaundry and (in search excerpts) Moneycontrol and Business Today say Rs 980 crore. Neither outlet explains the Rs 14 crore gap, so both figures are printed as published. Source: ThePrint, top donors

ThePrint says Western UP Power Transmission Company (P.V. Krishna Reddy a director) bought 220 bonds of Rs 1 crore, taking the MEIL group to "around Rs 1,200 crore". Newslaundry says Western UP Power Transmission Rs 220 crore, SEPC Power Rs 40 crore and Evey Trans Rs 6 crore, with the group above Rs 1,200 crore. The two agree on the Rs 220 crore and the group figure. Source: Newslaundry, Project Electoral Bond

Vedanta. ThePrint puts Vedanta's purchases at Rs 400.65 crore (first on April 16, 2019, last in November 2023), Newslaundry at Rs 376 crore (April 2019 to November 2023), and The Quint says "the group has collectively donated Rs 400 crore". The figure should be cited to its source. Vedanta's spokesperson told ThePrint "there was no raid on TSPL. ED had made an enquiry in August '22 with regard to a visa issue related to the commissioning of a power plant in Punjab", and that denial belongs next to any reference to the reported raid. Source: ThePrint, buyers and agency action

Haldia Energy, DLF and others. Haldia Energy (RP Sanjiv Goenka Group) bought Rs 377 crore, first on May 7, 2019 and last in January 2024, according to ThePrint. The CBI in March 2020 registered a case against Vedanta, Talwandi Sabo Power, Haldia Energy and 26 others for an alleged conspiracy with public servants causing loss to Mahanadi Coalfields (a Coal India subsidiary), with Prevention of Corruption Act sections; that is an allegation in a case registered by the CBI, as ThePrint reports. DLF's spokesperson told ThePrint the purchases "are fully disclosed in our accounts for the respective years", and shared a November 25, 2023 letter to the NSE saying ED officers had visited "in the matter of Supertech" and DLF had given "full cooperation". Source: ThePrint, buyers and agency action

Newslaundry gives three further accounts, each of which it attributes to agency actions. Income Tax raided Hetero Pharma Group on October 9, 2021, detected what it called "unaccounted" income of Rs 550 crore and seized Rs 142 crore in cash; the group bought Rs 60 crore of bonds over the following two years, and its chairman, Dr B. Pardhasaradhi Reddy, got a Rajya Sabha ticket from the BRS on May 19, 2022. Hero MotoCorp bought 20 bonds of Rs 1 crore on October 7, 2022, its first bond purchase in the scheme, after an Income Tax raid in March 2022, and the ED seized movable assets of about Rs 25 crore in August 2023 in a money-laundering case involving its CEO Pawan Munjal; the company later denied the allegations of Rs 1,000 crore in bogus expenses. And the ED froze Rs 95 crore of fixed deposits of the Rashmi Group in July 2022, with the group buying bonds worth Rs 95.5 crore before and after the raid. Source: Newslaundry, Project Electoral Bond

Probe agencies and bond purchases: Four analyses

Four outlets or groups looked at the overlap between agency action and bond purchases. The Quint, on March 15, 2024, found "At least 14 out of the top 30 companies" which bought bonds from April 12, 2019 to January 24, 2024 "faced action by central or state probe agencies". It listed examples with dates as printed there. Future Gaming: ED attached assets worth over Rs 409 crore in 2022, and it gave Rs 1,368 crore between October 27, 2020 and October 5, 2023. MEIL: Income Tax raids in October 2019, Rs 966 crore after. Haldia Energy: CBI action in March 2020, Rs 377 crore. Vedanta group: Rs 400 crore, with an ED raid on Talwandi Sabo Power in August 2022. Yashoda Super Speciality Hospital: IT raid December 2020, Rs 162 crore in October 2021. DLF Commercial Developers: CBI 2019, ED search November 2023, Rs 130 crore. Jindal Steel and Power: ED April 2022, Rs 123 crore. Chennai Greenwoods: IT July 2021, Rs 105 crore in January 2022. Dr Reddy's Laboratories: IT November 2023, Rs 80 crore. Source: The Quint, donors and agency action

ThePrint, on March 16, 2024, found "At least 10 companies among the top 50 buyers" under the lens of the Income Tax department, the ED or the CBI, naming Future Gaming, MEIL, Vedanta, Haldia Energy, Yashoda, DLF, Jindal Steel and Power, Shirdi Sai Electricals, Ramky Group and Hetero. Project Electoral Bond, via Newslaundry on March 15, 2024, wrote that "Scores of companies bought electoral bonds after they were faced with action" by the ED, IT, CBI and GST authorities, including three of the top five buyers, and that who encashed those bonds "will only be known once the missing Unique Identification Numbers... Are revealed", which happened on March 21. Source: ThePrint, buyers and agency action

The fourth is a claim by petitioners, as the Economic Times reported it on March 22, 2024. Prashant Bhushan said 41 companies facing probes by the CBI, ED and Income Tax gave Rs 2,471 crore to the BJP, of which Rs 1,698 crore was after raids and Rs 121 crore in the three months right after raids, and that in "at least 49 cases" Rs 62,000 crore in contracts or approvals were given by the Centre or BJP-run states. He gave examples (Kalpataru Group Rs 5.5 crore within three months of an August 3 raid; Future Gaming Rs 60 crore within three months of raids on November 12, 2023 and December 1, 2021; Aurobindo Pharma Rs 5 crore within three months of an ED raid on November 10, 2022) and named four categories: "chanda do, dhanda lo", "hafta-vasuli", "theka lo, rishwat do" and "farzi company". These are the petitioners' allegations at a press conference. Source: Economic Times, petitioners' claim

All four describe a correlation in time. The Court itself, on August 2, 2024, called the quid pro quo inference drawn from timing "assumptions". No court has found a quid pro quo in the bond data, and any use of these analyses should say so. Source: Supreme Court order of Aug 2, 2024

Period-by-period shares (The Hindu data team)

The Hindu's data team broke the record into periods tied to election cycles. All figures in this section are the Hindu's. Source: The Hindu data, who gave the most (last two years)

Source: The Hindu data, who gave the most (last two years)

In these windows the BJP's share of encashments ran between 35.4 and 43.2 percent, below its 47.5 percent overall share in ADR's data. The Hindu covered the earlier two years (April 12, 2019 to April 19, 2021) in a separate March 19 piece. Source: The Hindu data, who gave the most (last two years)

The first two years in four windows (The Hindu data team)

The Hindu's earlier data piece, published on March 19, 2024, took four periods between April 12, 2019 and April 19, 2021 and set the share of bonds bought against the share encashed. It was written before the alphanumeric numbers were released on March 21, so it says that "the numbers that link the purchasers and the donors are awaited" and looks only at shares of purchases and encashments for the dates where information was public. All figures in this section are the Hindu's. Source: The Hindu data, who gave the most (first two years)

Source: The Hindu data, who gave the most (first two years)

The eight windows in the Hindu's two pieces show the BJP's share of encashments, where it is named, ranging from 35.4 percent in January 2024 to 84 percent in the April to May 2019 window; in the October 2020 window the leading encashers were the YSR Congress, the DMK and the BJD, and the BJP is not among those named. The Hindu does not say why the shares moved, and this piece does not offer a reason. Source: The Hindu data, who gave the most (first two years)

Donor-by-party splits in the Hindu's March 21, 2024 pages

After the unique numbers were released on March 21, 2024, The Hindu published pages that linked donors to parties. One, whose browser title reads "Future Gaming gave Rs 542 crore to TMC, MEIL Rs 548 crore to BJP" and whose headline reads "MEIL's Rs 584 crore to BJP is top donation to any party", opens: "Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures, Ltd. (MEIL) donated Rs 584 crore to the BJP (60% of its donations) - the most by a donor for any single party." It adds that MEIL also donated Rs 195 crore to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (20 percent of its donations) and Rs 85 crore to the DMK (8.8 percent), and that its subsidiary Western UP Power Transmission Company donated Rs 110 crore to the Indian National Congress and Rs 80 crore to the BJP. It also says "All of the top 18 companies (by total donations via electoral bonds) donated portions of the bond denominations to the BJP." The page's headline, text and caption all say Rs 584 crore for MEIL to the BJP; only the page's browser title says Rs 548 crore, which does not match the page, so Rs 584 crore is used here. For Future Gaming the page gives Rs 542 crore to the Trinamool Congress. Source: The Hindu data, donor-by-party splits (Mar 21, 2024)

A second page, on the Congress and the BRS, reports that Vedanta Ltd. Was the biggest donor of bonds for the Congress, and that MEIL was the biggest donor for the BRS. The Congress, it says, encashed Rs 1,422 crore in total, of which Vedanta Limited contributed Rs 125 crore, and was the third largest beneficiary of the scheme, followed by the BRS. Source: The Hindu data, Congress and BRS donors

April 2024: Three analyses of the cap and the shell-company questions

The Court's holding on company donations in February 2024 turned on two ideas, the removed 7.5 percent cap and the loss-making or newly formed company. Within weeks of the data release, The Hindu's data team tested both against the published bond data. These are the newspaper's analyses, carried out with what it called an independent research team, and they describe patterns in the filings. They are not findings by any court. Source: The Hindu data team, 55 firms above the original cap

The first analysis appeared on Wednesday, April 3, 2024, and was updated on April 5. The Hindu said that it could match the financial accounts of at least 45 donor companies to the CMIE Prowess IQ database, and that it found their sources of funds "suspect". Thirty-three of them gave a combined Rs 576.2 crore in bonds, of which Rs 434.2 crore, "nearly 75%", was encashed by the BJP. Over the seven years from 2016-17 to 2022-23 these companies had negative or near-zero profit after tax in aggregate, with combined net losses of "over Rs 1 lakh crore", and 16 of them paid zero or negative direct taxes in aggregate. The newspaper wrote that this "indicates they could be acting as fronts for other firms or have misreported their profits and losses", which it described as raising "the possibility of money laundering". Source: The Hindu data team, 33 loss-making firms

Where sources differ: The headline of that article puts the loss-making firms' total at Rs 582 crore, while its text says Rs 576.2 crore. The text figure is used here. Source: The Hindu data team, 33 loss-making firms

The second analysis, published on April 5 and updated on Sunday, April 7, 2024, looked at the cap itself. The newspaper recalled that the Court had held the deletion of the 7.5 percent limit in Section 182(1) of the Companies Act, 2013 to be violative of Article 14. It took 385 companies that had given bonds worth Rs 5,362.2 crore to the BJP, matched 221 of them against the Prowess database, and found 55 whose gifts in 2022-23 and 2023-24 exceeded what the old cap would have allowed. Those 55 gave Rs 1,993 crore in all, of which Rs 1,377.9 crore, more than 69 percent, was above the old limit. The BJP received close to 71 percent of the total, or Rs 1,414 crore, Congress 10 percent (Rs 199.5 crore), the Trinamool 5.6 percent (Rs 113.5 crore) and the BRS 5.2 percent (Rs 105 crore). Source: The Hindu data team, 55 firms above the original cap

The year-by-year figures were as follows. In 2023-24, 33 companies gave Rs 1,225.7 crore in bonds, of which Rs 933.8 crore, 76.2 percent, was above the old cap; Rs 829.5 crore of the 33 companies' gifts, over 67 percent, went to the BJP. In 2022-23, 28 companies gave Rs 767.3 crore, of which Rs 444.1 crore, 57.8 percent, was above the cap, and Rs 585.3 crore, more than 76 percent, went to the BJP. Five companies in 2023-24 and eight in 2022-23 that went above the cap had negative or zero net profits. The Hindu pointed out that companies with negative profits could not have made donations under Section 182(1) as it stood, and said this "raises questions on their source of funds". It added that six of the 33 had not reported profits for all three preceding years, so it used the averages of the years reported, and that going back to 2018-19 would raise the amount above the cap "significantly". Source: The Hindu data team, 55 firms above the original cap

The Hindu tied this to the Election Commission's letter of May 26, 2017, in which the Commission objected that removing the cap "opens up" the possibility of shell companies being set up to donate. The same letter appears in the Court's account of the Commission's 2017 objections. Source: The Hindu data team, 55 firms above the original cap

The third analysis, updated on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, concerned the other half of the rule. Under the Companies Act, a company less than three years old may not make political contributions, and Section 182 provides that a company in breach is punishable with a fine of up to five times the amount, and every officer in default with up to six months in prison and the same fine. The three-year rule dated from the 1985 amendment of Section 293A, was kept in the Companies Act of 2013, and was kept again when the Finance Act 2017 removed the cap. The Hindu found at least 20 firms that bought bonds worth about Rs 103 crore within three years of incorporation. At the time of their first purchase, five were under a year old, seven were a year old and eight had completed two years. Many had been formed in 2019 or during the pandemic. Source: The Hindu data team, 20 firms within three years of incorporation

Twelve of the 20 were headquartered in Hyderabad. Together they gave Rs 37.5 crore, close to 75 percent of which was encashed by the BRS, with the rest divided among the TDP, Congress and BJP. Two Hyderabad companies, Tsharks Infra Developers Private Limited and Tsharks Overseas Education Consultancy Private Limited, both incorporated in 2023, bought Rs 7.5 crore of bonds within months of incorporation and gave them to the BRS. Outside Hyderabad, HH Iron and Steel Private Limited of Coimbatore gave Rs 15 crore to the BJP and Rs 5 crore to the BJD, with its first purchase "just days short of turning three years old". Askus Logistics Private Limited, incorporated in November 2021, bought its first bond within one and a half years and gave Rs 22 crore, encashed by the DMK, the Trinamool Congress and the RJD. Besseggen Infotech LLP, incorporated in May 2018, gave Rs 11.5 crore (as a limited liability partnership it is not a company, so Section 182 of the Companies Act does not apply to it as such, though The Hindu counted it among the 20 firms), with its first purchase two years and ten months into its existence. Source: The Hindu data team, 20 firms within three years of incorporation

These analyses do not say that any donation was a payment for a favour, and the Court itself said on August 2, 2024 that inferring a quid pro quo from timing alone rested on assumptions. What they add is a measurement of the two features the Court had found arbitrary: The missing cap and the missing distinction between profit-making and loss-making or new companies. Source: Supreme Court order of Aug 2, 2024

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