“Lottery King” provided Rs 509cr, or 79% of the DMK’s election bond revenue

NEW DELHI: Between 2019–20 and 2022–2023, DMK received Rs 509 crore from Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd, the company controlled by Santiago Martin, dubbed the “lottery king,” who has been the subject of an investigation by the ED and CBI since 2019.
This is 83% of the Rs 611 crore that the governing party in Tamil Nadu collected in bonds during the same time frame.

Future Gaming, the largest donor through EBs, deposited contributions for DMK in four tranches, according to updated electoral bond details released by the Election Commission on Sunday. These tranches included the purchase of bonds worth Rs 60 crore between October 23, 2020, and October 29, 2020; Rs 249 crore between April 5, 2021, and January 11, 2022; Rs 160 crore between April 11, 2022, and October 12, 2022; and Rs 40 crore on April 20, 2023.

Between 2019–20 and 2022–2023, Mega Infrastructure (Rs 105 crore), India Cements (Rs 14 crore), Sun TV Network (Rs 10 crore), Triveni (Rs 8 crore), and RamcoCements (Rs 5 crore) were among the other significant bond contributors to the DMK. During this time, it got a total of Rs 656.5 crore.
In their bond details submission to the European Commission on November 14, 2023, DMK claimed that “donors did not strictly adhere to the requirements of furnishing their details when they handed over the bonds to us,” despite the electoral bonds scheme’s provision for non-disclosure of donor details by the licenced bank.
It claimed, “We contacted our donors, and we were able to collect the details from them in accordance with the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.”
Other parties, including JD(S) and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), revealed their donors via bonds up until the EC requested the pertinent information in November 2023 in response to the Supreme Court’s orders. According to JD(S), among others, Megha Engineering & Constructions Pvt Ltd (Rs 50 crore), Embassy Group (Rs 22 crore), JSW Steel (Rs 5 crore), and Infosys (Rs 1 crore) accounted for Rs 89.7 crore of the company’s total bond revenues between 2018–19 and 10.4.2023.
In 2019, more parties complied with the SC’s directives when exchanging donor information via bonds. Among them are the Goa Forward Party, Samajwadi Party, AIADMK, NCP, AAP, RJD, JD (U), and Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF). According to AIADMK, the IPL franchise owner Chennai Super Kings contributed Rs 5 crore, Lakshmi Machine Works contributed Rs 1 crore, and TVS Capital Funds’ Gopal Srinivasan contributed Rs 5 lakh of the Rs 6.05 crore bond financing for AIADMK in 2019.
It’s interesting to note that, despite the fact that these parties acknowledged contributors via the bonded method till 2018–19, some, like SP and JD (U), refused to reveal the origins of their respective Rs 10 crore contributions, claiming they were sent to them by mail or left in a sealed envelope at the party office. Others, such as the Goa Forward Party and RJD, claimed to have received bonds from the Prudent Electoral Trust for Rs. 50 lakh and Rs. 1 crore, respectively. The donor information was only described as “not readily available” by TDP and RJD.
JD (U) withheld information on the remaining Rs 10 crore in revenues, despite naming Shree Cement Ltd.. and Bharti Airtel as donors of bonds valued at Rs 2 crore and Rs 1 crore, respectively. “On 3.4.2019, someone came to our office and gave us a sealed envelope. When we opened it, we discovered a bunch that included ten Rs 1 crore electoral bonds. On April 10, 2019, we created an account at the SBI main branch in Patna and deposited the funds into our party account. We are unable to disclose any further information about the donations at this time,” it said.
The identities of the other bond givers, San Beverages (30 lakh), S K Traders and B S Traders (Rs 7 lakh each), S K Trading Co. (Rs 1 lakh), A S Traders (Rs 5 lakh), and B G Traders (5 lakh), were disclosed by SP, which claimed to have received Rs 10 crore donated anonymously “by post.”
Among its bond contributors in 2019, NCP included the Neotia Foundation, Bharti Airtel (Rs 2 crore each), Cyrus Poonawala of the Serum Institute (Rs 3.75 crore), Avinash Bhosle (Rs 4.5 crore), and Bajaj Finserv (Rs 7 crore). Up till 29.5.2019, Torrent Pharmaceuticals (Rs 1 crore), B G Shirke Construction Technology (Rs 3 crore), and Bajaj Group (Rs 1 crore) provided AAP with bond finance.
Alembic Pharmaceuticals, situated in Vadodra, gave Rs 50 lakh to the Sikkim Democratic Front on October 12, 2018.