A Bengaluru Special Court has directed the filing of an FIR against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over serious allegations of extortion related to the electoral bonds scheme. The same was discontinued now.

The complaint was filed by Adarsh Iyer, a member of the Janaadhikara Sangharsha Sanghatane ( JSP ), who accused Ms. Sitharaman, along with other prominent BJP leaders, operated an extortion racket under the cover of the electoral bonds initiative.

According to the allegations, corporate entities were coerced into purchasing electoral bonds worth thousands of crores, with enforcement raids by the Enforcement Directorate ( ED ) allegedly used as a form of pressure to compel these transactions, reported NDTv.

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It is further alleged that the funds acquired through the sale of electoral bonds were funnelled into the accounts of BJP leaders, both at the national and state levels.

The electoral bonds scheme, introduced by the government in 2018, was originally intended as a mechanism for promoting transparency in political funding. However, critics have argued that the scheme has been used to facilitate untraceable donations to political parties

The complaint says that the scheme was exploited to accumulate large sums of money for political purposes, with Ms. Sitharaman and other senior BJP officials played key roles in the alleged operation.

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman was re-appointed as Minister of Finance and Ministry of Corporate Affairs of India for the third consecutive term under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. She came to the part of the government in 2019.