Ex-HC judge pays Rs 2.5 cr to men claiming RSS ties to buy electoral bonds, gets duped (The News Minute)

A former High Court judge allegedly lost a huge amount of money after he paid two men who claimed to be with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for favours for his family. The retired judge, who has served as a judge in Andhra Pradesh High Court and another High Court, gave Rs 2.5 crore to two men thinking they were going to be used to purchase Electoral Bonds for the BJP. In return, the judge was promised that his grandchildren in US would be given jobs.

Speaking to TNM, the judge said he had given money to Anil and Sridhar (names changed), based in Hyderabad, in 2021. The judge alleged that he had been trying to retrieve the money for two years, but had hit a wall. One of the men, whom the judge has filed a police complaint against, has links with the World Hindu Congress.

Electoral Bonds are interest-free bearer bonds that can be purchased from the State Bank of India by citizens or corporate entities for any value and given to registered political parties anonymously. After the Supreme Court put a halt to the Electoral Bonds scheme in a recent judgement, the former judge who had been unable to get the bonds from them, approached the police with a complaint of cheating.

According to the judge, one of the two men he complained against, Anil, was known to his son-in-law. They claimed to be ‘important leaders’ in the RSS and told him they would purchase electoral bonds with the money and in exchange they would secure jobs for his two grandchildren who had completed their postgraduate studies in the US.