New Delhi: The Bhartiya Janta Party took a large donation from a company that is now being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for facilitating “terror funding,” financial declarations by the BJP itself reveal.
RKW Developers Ltd, a company at the heart of a probe by the ED for carrying out transactions with and buying properties from the late Iqbal Memon alias Iqbal Mirchi – an accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts and a close aide of mafia boss Dawood Ibrahim – gave money to the ruling party, according to the BJP’s filings with the Election Commission. In 2014-15, RKW, which is associated with the beleaguered Dewan Housing Finance Limited, gave Rs 10 crore to the party. This was also pointed out by CobraPost in January 2019.
While the BJP regularly receives larger sums from the various electoral trusts, which pool in donations from various corporate houses, no individual company donating on its own has given the party more than what RKW gave it. In light of the ongoing controversy over electoral bonds, it is worth bearing in mind that had the Modi government introduced this anonymous form of political lobbying in 2014-15, RKW’s donation would never have come to light.Ranjeet Bindra, a former director in the company, has been arrested by the ED for allegedly facilitating deals on behalf of the underworld. News reports have quoted ED sources describing Bindra as an “agent” who “brokered” the deal between Mirchi and the firms.
But that’s not all.
A company accused by the ED of buying Mirchi’s properties, Sunblink Real Estate, is linked, via a common directorship, to another company that also made aRs 2 crore donation to the BJP.
Mehul Anil Bavishi, a director on Sunblink, is also a director in a company called Skill Realtors Private Limited. Filings made to the EC show that the BJP received Rs 2 crore from Skill Realtors in 2014-15..
Placid Jacob Naronha, a director in RKW Developers, is also a director of Darshan Developers Private Limited. Darshan had donated Rs 7.5 crore to the BJP in 2016-17, EC filings reveal. An India Today report says the ED is also probing the role of Naronha in the case.
The ED alleges that RKW Developers facilitated the sale of Mirchi’s properties and Bindra had allegedly taken a commission of Rs 30 crore. The agency had also questioned actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra for dealings with RKW Developers. Shetty had been a director in a firm, Essential Hospitality, which had transactions with RKW Developers. The Iqbal Mirchi case was a contentious issue last month in the run up to the Maharashtra assembly elections. The ED investigation pertains to alleged property transactions between Mirchi, Millennium Developers (a firm owned by Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel) and Sunblink.
The investigation took off right before the Maharashtra polls and the agency had even questioned Patel and arrested two persons, including Bindra. Patel has strongly denied any wrongdoing. Mukhtar Memon, Mirchi’s brother-in-law, was questioned by the ED in connection with the sale of Mirchi’s properties to Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd and Millennium Developers Pvt Ltd.–Agencies
