Timblo Pvt Ltd, which was named by the government as having stashed black money abroad, has donated Rs 1.18 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in nine instalments and Rs 65 lakh in three instalments to Congress in seven years, according to two private election watchdogs.
The donations were made between 2004-05 and 2011-12, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the National Election Watch (NEW) said on Monday. Rajkot-based bullion trader Chamanbhai Lodhiya had donated Rs 51,000 to BJP.
The Timblo group donated Rs 80 lakh in five installments to the BJP in 2011-12. The party received another Rs 25 lakh in 2006-07 while it got Rs 10 lakh in three installments in 2005-06. A donation of Rs 3 lakh was made in 2004-05.
The Congress party got Rs 55 lakh in two installments in 2011-12 while it received Rs 10 lakh in 2009-10.
The analysis showed that most of the donations came in 2011-12 as it gave Rs 1.35 crore in that fiscal. Incidentally, Goa went to Assembly polls in March 2012 and the group was facing attack from anti-mining lobby.
The Timblo group facing troubles is not new as the Justice M B Shah Commission, which probed the illegal mining in Goa, had found fault with the group in 2012.
In an interim report on a petition filed by Goa Foundation, the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Commission (CEC) found that the group was operating a mine for which the lease was in the name of one Badrudin Mavani.
However, there was no formal government order on transfer of the lease from an individual to Timblo.
However, the first renewal of the lease was approved by the state government in the name of a partnership firm M/s Badrudin Hussain Bhai Mavani, which is “almost identical to that of the lease holder”.
But the CEC noted that the lease holder has neither any financial stake nor any control in the partnership firm and Timblo Pvt Ltd and Radha S Timblo were the partners.
But the more serious charge by the CEC was that the Timblo group came with a power of attorney of Mavani, whose “genuineness and legality and veracity is highly doubtful”, to buttress its claim of ownership and control of the mining lease
