Hero MotoCorp bought Electoral Bond: Lok Sabha Elections On Sunday (March 17), the very next day after the announcement of 2024 dates, the Election Commission has uploaded the data of latest information received on electoral bonds from State Bank of India (SBI) on its website on the orders of the Supreme Court. After this new data became public, a big case of electoral bond purchase of auto sector major Hero MotoCorp has come to light.
According to the report of The Telegraph, according to the data released by the Election Commission, auto company Hero MotoCorp had purchased 20 electoral bonds worth Rs 1 crore each in a single day. These electoral bonds worth Rs 20 crore were purchased for the first time by the company on October 7, 2022.
It is also being claimed that all these electoral bonds were purchased only a few months after the income tax raid on the company.
IT had raided several locations of the company in March 2022.
Income Tax Department officials had raided several locations of the company in March 2022. Income Tax Department officials conducted the raid at the offices of Hero MotoCorp and the residences of its promoters including Group Chairman and CEO Pawan Munjal in Gurugram, Haryana and Delhi.
It has also been claimed in the report that the Income Tax Department had seized many important evidences during the raid which showed that Hero MotoCorp had made fake purchases. At the same time, huge unaccounted cash was spent and entries related to housing were received which in total is more than Rs 1,000 crore.
A transaction worth Rs 100 crore was detected in Chhatarpur’s farmhouse.
Investigating agency IT had also detected cash transactions of more than Rs 100 crore for a farmhouse in Chhatarpur, Delhi. At the same time, Hero MotoCorp officials had described this raid as a ‘routine investigation’.
Hero MotoCorp had said in a statement that we have been told that this is a routine investigation, which is not unique before the end of the financial year. It was also claimed that the company is ‘law-abiding, with strong internal financial controls’ and its financial statements are duly audited.
Property worth Rs 50 crore was temporarily confiscated
Meanwhile, in November last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had temporarily seized properties worth Rs 50 crore of Hero MotoCorp Executive Chairman Pawan Munjal in connection with the money-laundering investigation against him. The central agency had said that this includes 3 immovable properties (in the form of land) in Delhi.
It is noteworthy that earlier on March 14, the Election Commission had made the information related to electoral bonds public. There was mention of electoral bonds purchased by companies and donations received by parties through them.
