‘Extortion’, ‘quid pro quo’, and the murky ecosystem of political funding

At 7.40 am on June 25, 2020, chaos ensued at the IFB Agro distillery in Noorpur village of West Bengal. Over 150 armed men, brandishing swords, rods, knives and guns, stormed the plant, overpowering security guards and terrorising workers in the heart of the Trinamool Congress’s Diamond Harbour stronghold in South 24 Parganas district. For four harrowing hours, they vandalised the plant, destroying CCTV cameras, computers and medical rooms before finally shutting the factory down at gunpoint and ordering the workers to leave.

The next day, Ritesh Agarwal, the company secretary of IFB Agro Industries Ltd, informed the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange of the attack, stating that though a complaint was made to them, police seemed too helpless to act. The company sought the state chief minister’s intervention, hoping for a safer environment to reopen.

Six months on, Agarwal reported to the stock exchanges that the plant had reopened under police protection six days after the attack, but no arrests had been made. The company continued to face threats, allegedly from excise officials demanding illegal favours. 

In April 2022, the company informed the stock exchanges of its plan to buy electoral bonds of up to Rs 40 crore for political contributions in the year 2022-23. This appears to be a reluctant capitulation to systemic extortion. From 2021 to 2023, Rs 42 crore had been funnelled to the TMC, the state’s ruling party.

Welcome to the shadowy realm of political funding, where corporate survival may often hinge on placating political overlords.

Over the past five months, Newslaundry has explored the murky world of political funding and electoral bonds. Our investigative series began with stories about companies facing raids and subsequently donating to the BJP. These revelations set the stage for a series of follow-up stories, especially after the Election Commission of India (ECI), on the orders of the Supreme Court, released new electoral bond data.