The State Bank of India (SBI) told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it has given details about the buying and cashing of electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI) as per the court's orders. In its affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the bank shared the names of the people who bought the electoral bonds, along with the date and amount of each bond.
It also provided the names of the political parties that cashed the bonds, along with the date and amount. However, it didn't mention if the unique code on each bond, which could identify the donor and the recipient, was included in the data.
The SBI chairman mentioned in the affidavit that the bank keeps records of when the bonds were bought, the amount, and the buyer's name. Regarding the political parties, it keeps records of when the bonds were cashed and the amounts.
The bank said it provided this information to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in digital form, following the court's directions on March 11, before the end of business hours on March 12, 2024.
The affidavit stated, "According to the direction (b), we provided the date of purchase, buyer's name, and bond amount for each Electoral Bond. As for direction (c), we shared the date when the bonds were cashed, the names of the political parties that received the contributions, and the bond amounts."
The bank also mentioned that the data covered the period from April 12, 2019, to February 15, 2024. However, it clarified that the number of bonds mentioned in the application included those bought from April 1, 2019, rather than April 12, 2019. In total, 22,217 bonds were bought between April 1, 2019, and February 15, 2024.
