Sahara and Aditya Birla Logbooks Expose Corrupt Top Politicians

It isn’t only just one party that accepted bribes – these two companies bribed almost all of India’s major parties.

On 8 November, the government demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, claiming that the objective was to curb black money circulation in the market. If that is truly the case, then why is the government turning a blind eye to the evidence seized by investigating agencies during raids on the Aditya Birla and Sahara groups?

In November 2014, the investigating agencies took hold of incriminating documents from the premises of these two private companies.

The documents revealed that crores in unaccounted money were paid as bribes to politicians and public figures.

On the basis of these documents, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan on 15 November 2016. Prior to this, on 25 October 2016, Bhushan had written to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to initiate a probe into the matter.

In one of his tweets, Bhushan claimed that the government brought forward the demonetisation scheme because of this black money exposé.

Was Modi's unplanned demonetisation decision taken in panic due to imminent exposure of payoffs of Crores to him by Sahara/Birla? https://t.co/9ftpWiVDFD

— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) November 17, 2016

Who Got How Much?

The Quint accessed a copy of the petition filed by Bhushan. During the raids on the Sahara Group, the investigating agencies seized cash worth Rs 135 crore apart from the incriminating documents. The log sheet allegedly shows that from the period between 12 November 2013 and 22 February 2014, cash was transferred to several important public figures and politicians.

1. Between November 2013 and February 2014, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politicians allegedly received Rs 23 crore in cash
2. In 2013-14, Rs 40.1 crore was allegedly used to bribe ‘Ahmedabad Modiji’
3. In September 2013, Rs 1 crore was allegedly to given to the Delhi Chief Minister as a bribe
4. Rs 5 crore and Rs 3 crore were given to the Rajasthan and Bihar Chief Ministers, respectively
5. Rs 10 crore and Rs 4 crore were given to Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Chief Ministers, respectively, in September 2013 and in November 2013
6. Rs 10 crore was given as a bribe to the top leadership of the Samajwadi Party
7. Rs 7 crore went to the top leadership in the Bahujan Samajwadi Party
8. Rs 2 crore was paid to the top leadership in the Rashtriya Janata Dal
9. In 2010, Rs 1.15 crore was paid as a bribe to top Congress leaders

The documents seized during the raids on the Aditya Birla Group in October 2013 also lead to the recovery of several implicating documents.

1. A payment of Rs 7.08 crore was allegedly made towards ‘Project-J- Environment & Forest’ between January and February 2012.
2. An email in the Executive of Birla Group’s account, dated 16 November 2012, contained the cryptic entry, ‘Gujarat CM - 25 crore (12 rest?)’

In the petition to the Supreme Court, Bhushan has demanded the formation of a Special Investigative Team to probe the matter. These documents reveal a clear connivance between the corporates and the politicians. What is also evident is that it's not just one political party that has accepted bribes – almost all are involved in corrupt activities.

Will a fair investigation be carried out, which not only nails those who were involved in corruption, but also those who tried to protect the corrupt?