SBI Submits Full Details Of Electoral Bonds With Unique Numbers; What Will It Reveal?

New Delhi: The State Bank of India (SBI) on Thursday complied with the Supreme Court’s order by submitting complete details of the electoral bonds, including the unique numbers, to the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The Supreme Court had, on March 18, directed SBI to make a complete disclosure of all details of electoral bonds which are in its possession. The top court’s nudge came after SBI earlier only submitted details of purchasers, the amount and fund parties received, separately.

Now that complete details have been submitted, the following information will be known:

* Name of the purchaser of a bond

* Denomination and specific number of the bond

* Name of the party that has encashed the bond

* Last four digits of the bank account number of political parties

* The denomination and number of bonds encashed.

“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,” SBI said in its affidavit to the Supreme Court.

SBI told Supreme Court that it has no more undisclosed details regarding electoral bonds, apart from KYC details and complete account numbers.

The unique alphanumeric number, which was submitted on Thursday, will help identify the bond and which party it went to.

By withholding this number, SBI earlier did not fully comply with Supreme Court’s order of March 11 in which the bank was asked to disclose all details of electoral bonds.

The top purchaser of electoral bonds included Future Gaming and Hotel Services, owned by lottery king Santiago Martin, as per details disclosed earlier.