DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 FIRST SERVING CM TO BE ARRESTED SC HEARS PLEA TODAY, HC DENIED RELIEF NATIONWIDE PROTESTS: AAP CENTRAL AGENCY ARRESTS KEJRIWAL GAYATHRI MANI, ARNABJIT SUR & MAHENDER SINGH MANRAL NEW DELHI, MARCH 21 ARVIND KEJRIWAL, whose campaign against corruption in 2011 birthed the Aam Aadmi Party and paved the way for his ascension as Delhi’s Chief Minister, wasarrestedbytheEnforcement Directorate Thursday night in connectionwiththeDelhiexcise policy case. He became the first serving Chief Minister to be arrested, after months of skipping summons by the investigation agency—nineintotal—andcalling them “illegal”. His arrest came hours after the Delhi High Court declined to grantKejriwalinterimprotection from coercive action by the ED. The case pertains to alleged MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, MARCH 21 Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal being taken away from his residence after his arrest in New Delhi on Thursday. Abhinav Saha kickbacks received by the AAP and its leaders in implementation of the now-scrapped 2021- 22 Delhi excise policy. While Kejriwal is the most high-profilearrestinthecase,in- vestigation agencies have also arrested his former deputy CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BJP’S TOTAL DONORS 487, ITS TOTAL BONDS REDEEMED SINCE APRIL 2019: `6,060 CR BJP recipient No. 1, its top 10 donors form 35% of its `6,000-cr bond kitty SBIfilescompliance affidavitinSC;EC releasesdonor, recipientdetails JAY MAZOOMDAAR, SHIJITH KUNHITTY, ANJISHNU DAS & RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, MARCH 21 PUSHED AND prodded by the SupremeCourt,theStateBankof India (SBI), which had sought time until June 30, revealed telling data on electoral bonds Thursday — from donor details to parties that redeemed the bonds, including the unique alphanumeric codes that link donors to beneficiaries. A scrutiny of the data published by the Election Commissionof Indiarevealsthat thetop10of thetotal487donors to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party account for Rs 2,119 crore, whichis35percentof theparty’s electoral bond kitty of Rs 6,060 crore encashed since April 2019, the largest amongst all parties. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 104 132 163 62 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Frightened dictator, says WHAT NEXT, WHO NEXT Rahul; Opposition loses AAP claims he will run ‘national campaign voice’ Govt from jail, why that’s easier said than done TOP 10 DONORSFOR TOP3 PARTIES BJP Megha Engineering 6,060cr* Qwik Supply Chain 584 cr** 375 cr Vedanta 226.65 cr Bharti Airtel TMC Future Gaming 542 cr 1,610 cr Haldia Energy 281 cr CONG Western UP Power 110 cr Dhariwal Infrastructure MKJ Enterprises Yashoda Super Specialty 197.4 cr 175.5 cr Vedanta . 104 cr MKJ Enterprises 90 cr Madanlal Ltd. 1,422 cr 91.6 cr Avees Trading 45.9 cr 45.5 cr 42 64 cr 53 cr Keventer Food Park 144.5 IFB Agro DLF 130 Chennai Green Woods 40 Sasmal Infrastructure 39 Birla Carbon 105 PCBL Ltd Rithwik Projects Future Gaming 100 Prarambh Securities 38.75 SEPC Power 30 Haldia Energy 81 Crescent Power Ltd Siddhi Trading 22 40 33 Future Gaming Avees Trading 50 30 * Total bonds redeemed since April 2019; ** Value of bonds (Rs crore); Data compiled by Shijith Kunhitty, Anjishnu Das Infra, metals and energy Common to dominate donor sectors Cong, BJP: SHYAMLAL YADAV & JAY MAZOOMDAAR NEW DELHI, MARCH 21 THE TOP three donors of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the biggest beneficiary of electoral bonds, include Hyderabadheadquartered Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, Qwik Supply Chain Private Ltd, which is associated with Reliance Industries Ltd, and Anil Agarwal-promotedVedantaLtd. Put together, they donated Rs 1,186 crore to the party. According to data released Wednesday by the Election Commission of India, BJP has redeemed Rs 584 crore from MeghaEngineeringandits associate company Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited. Meghaitself fundedBJP to the tune of Rs 449 crore and WesternUPPowerTransmission gave Rs 80 crore. The group is also the top donor for Congress. Future Gaming, which is the largest contributor to the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Group that gave the most LALMANI VERMA & JAY MAZOOMDAAR NEW DELHI, MARCH 21 THE NO. 1 donor to the Congress wastheMeghaGroup’sWestern UP Power Transmission Company Limited which contributedRs110croreviaelectoral bonds. The group’s Megha CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Bond Buyer No. 1 is TMC’s Donor No. 1 HARIKISHAN SHARMA NEW DELHI, MARCH 21 THE BIGGEST purchaser of electoral bonds, lottery company FutureGamingandHotelServices Pvt Ltd, which bought bonds worthoverRs1,300crorebetween 2019and2024,donatedthehighest amount of Rs 542 crore to the TrinamoolCongress(TMC). Accordingtodatareleasedby the Election Commission on Thursday, the TMC, led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, received Rs 1,610 crore through electoral bonds from 211 donors between April 12, 2019 and January 24, 2024. Apart from Future Gaming, the TMC also received Rs 281 crore from Haldia Energy and Rs 90 crore from Dhariwal Infrastructure. Two companies — MKJ Enterprises and AVEES Trading Finance — donated over Rs 45 crore each. Among the other donors were IFB Agro Industries, Chennai Green Woods, PCBL, Prarambh Securities and Crescent Power. Other than the TMC, Future Gaming, run by “lottery king” SantiagoMartin,alsodonatedRs 509 crore to the DMK from April 19, 2019 till November 14, 2023. Among the party's other donors were: Transways Exim Private Limited, Keventer Foodpark Infra Limited, Rashmi Cement Ltd, Rahul Bhatia, Westwell Gases Private Limited, Phillips Carbon Black Limited, Misrilall Mines Pvt Ltd, Himalayan Endeavour Pvt Ltd, M/sRameshAgarwalCSBottling, PL Ripley & Co Stevedoring & Handling Pvt, Castle Liquors Private Limited, and Monalisa Bottling Industries Pvt Ltd. AS ARVIND Kejriwal became the second Opposition chief minister — the first sitting CM — to be arrested in less than two months, the Opposition INDIA bloc rallied behind him and launched a blistering attack on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. From senior Congress leader RahulGandhiandCongresspresident Mallikarjun Kharge to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK leader M K Stalin, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, a range of Opposition leaders severelycriticisedtheGovernment. Hitting out at Modi, Rahul said a “scared dictator” is soundingthedeathknellof democracy. Leaders of the Delhi Congress, led by its chief Arvinder Singh Lovely and AAP baiter Sandeep Dikshit, reached Kejriwal’s residence in a show of support. “Whilecapturingalltheinstitutions including the media, breaking up parties, extorting moneyfromcompanies,freezing the account of the main oppositionpartywasnotenoughforthe 'asurishakti’nowthearrestofthe elected Chief Ministers has also become a common thing. INDIA will give a befitting reply to this,” Rahul said. Khargesaid“thearrogantBJP, which makes false claims of victory every day, is trying to weaken the opposition by illegal means before the elections. If there was real confidence of victory then the accounts of the main opposition party, Congress Party, would not have been frozen by misusing the constitutionalinstitutions.Leadersof opposition parties are not targeted CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 L-G can push for President’s rule if he doesn’t quit; political vacuum in party MALLICA JOSHI, JATIN ANAND & APURVA VISHWANATH NEW DELHI, MARCH 21 ter Saurabh Bharadwaj. That’s easier said than done giventhenewbattlelines—political and Constitutional — that are being drawn. ForKejriwaltoremain CM, he would need some respite from courts. This is key because for a string ● of opposition ministers who were arrested, repeated denial of bail has been a gentle nudge to resign. For Tamil Nadu Minister Senthil Balaji, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in June last year, the Madras High Court in January asked how he could continue to be a minister 230 days after being arrested. Even within AAP, Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain tendered their E WHO NEXT and what next? Never have these questions been as relevant for a political party andagovernmentasthey arenowfortheAamAadmiParty. As Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on Thursday evening, the partymaintainedthathewillrun the government from Tihar jail. “There is no plan to change the Delhi Chief Minister or the party chief. We have said before that if he is arrested, he will govern from jail and that stance has not changed,” said Delhi Health and Urban Development minis- EXPLAINED ED arrests Delhi CM days after it linked him to `100 cr kickbacks in excise case CONTINUEDONPAGE2