New Delhi: One of the three people whom the Centre named in the Supreme Court as being black money account holders had made big donations to both BJP and Congress between 2004 and 2012.
Radha S Timblo, a Goa-based miner and owner of Timblo Pvt Ltd, donated Rs 1.18 crore to the BJP and Rs 65 lakh to the Congress in this period, Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said, quoting figures submitted by the parties to the Election Commission.
The Centre on Monday named Pradip Burman, Radha Timblo and Pankaj Lodhiya in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on people with black money accounts.
"An analysis of the donations made by individuals and corporates to national parties between 2004-05 and 2011-12 shows that Timblo Pvt Ltd, whose managing director is Radha Timblo, donated nine times to the BJP, a total of Rs 1.18 crore and thrice to the Congress, to a total of Rs 65 lakh, in seven years," said Jagdish Chokkar, a founder-member of ADR, a group that advocates electoral reform.
Of the nine donations Timblo made to BJP, three were of Rs 25 lakh each. The payments were made by a Federal Bank, Panaji, cheque (no. 031097) in 2011-12, an HDFC Bank, Margao, cheque (No. 101484) in 2006-07, and an ICICI Bank cheque (No. 315549 in 2011-12. Panduranga Timblo Industries, part of the Timblo group of companies, made two payments to BJP, of Rs 20 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, by SBI, Panaji, cheques in 2011-12. Apart from these big payments, Timblo and her companies made four payments to BJP ranging from Rs 51,000 to Rs 7 lakh from HDFC, Madgaon Urban Cooperative Bank and Axis Bank accounts.
Timblo Pvt Ltd made three donations to Congress including two of Rs 30 and Rs 25 lakh on March 24, 2012 and March 29, 2012 from a Federal Bank, Panaji, account. It made another payment of Rs 10 lakh from an HDFC Bank account on April 20, 2009.
"This is an eye-opener for political parties. They should be careful about the sources of their funds," Chokkar said. "There should be more transparency on donations made to parties."
