The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: A civil society group in Bengaluru has filed an FIR against Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders alleging that they orchestrated a racket forcing companies to donate to the party through electoral bonds.
A special Bengaluru court has ordered the registeration of the FIR.
Adarsh Iyer of the Janaadhikara Sangharsha Sanghatane has complained against BJP president J.P. Nadda, BJP Karnataka president BY.. Vijayendra, party leader Naleen Kumar Kateel and unnamed officials from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) besides the finance minister, Newsminute has reported.
The sections of Indian Penal Code under which the FIR has been filed are sections 384 (extortion), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 34 (acts done with common intention).
It alleges that the finance minister, in collaboration with ED, forced companies like Vedanta, Sterlite and Aurobindo Pharma to buy electoral bonds worth over Rs 8,000 crore. The opposition has often alleged that the BJP has used ED raids as a political weapon against its adversaries.
The ED had arrested Aurobindo Pharma’s director P. Sarath Chandra Reddy in Delhi in connection with the liquor scam case in November 2022. After the arrest, the pharma company purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 25 crore on different occasions. The company had donated these bonds to the BJP. In 2023, the company turned approver in the case and Reddy was given bail on the medical grounds.
“The entire extortion racket, disguised as electoral bonds, has been orchestrated in collusion with BJP officials at various levels,” the complaint says. It adds that party leaders accumulated illicit funds through the electoral bonds scheme. The scheme was scrapped by the Supreme Court before the general elections this year.
The BJP has defended its leaders saying that the charges are ‘politically motivated’, according to NDTV. The party leaders have also said the scheme was a policy decision, and not a political one.
The BJP said that Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah should resign as a corruption case is ongoing against him in the Mysore Urban Development Authority land allotment matter. The chief minister, in turn, attacked the BJP saying that Sitharaman should also resign now, applying the same standards.