Journalist who exposed Electoral Bonds speaks to TNM | Poonam Agarwal

In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Friday, March 15, directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to release the unique identification numbers that will reveal who donated to which political parties. At present, it is only possible to know how much a company or individual donated and which parties received donations. These details are in two separate silos submitted by the SBI on March 12 after the SC’s landmark February 15 ruling that struck down the issuance of electoral bonds as unconstitutional. The five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra, that has been hearing the electoral bonds case reconvened on March 15 to hear an application filed by the ECI. As Live Law reports, the court was annoyed that SBI’s counsel was not present at the hearing and reportedly said, “One thing. Who is appearing for the State Bank of India? They have not disclosed the bond numbers. It has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India.” TNM’s Shabbir Ahmed speaks to Poonam Agarwal, award winning investigative journalist and founder of ExplainX channel, who first purchased electoral bonds and exposed the secret unique identification number in the electoral bonds scheme.