The State Bank of India (SBI) is dragging its feet in providing details of those who played secret santas to political parties and gifted electoral bonds. But what makes its limp a suspect is that the bank displays stunning agility in fulfilling similar government inquiries.

Days after the court struck down the contentious fund-raising scheme that granted anonymity to donors of political parties, and asked SBI, which issued the bonds, to divulge donor details, the bank has told the apex court that it is overwhelmed by the task at hand. It would take months for it to match the buyer of the bonds with beneficiary parties.

But in a trove of documents, which transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra had shared with The Collective and formed the basis of a series of investigative exposes on electoral bonds in 2019 and 2020, there are many pieces of pivotal evidence that show SBI is capable of summoning electoral bond details in a flash.

Nitin Sethi and Tapasya dig into the documents again to show the resourcefulness of SBI in tracking the bonds –an audit trail of the bonds being sold and redeemed by political parties, a hidden serial number, the exhaustive KYC exercise being some of them.

Click here to read in detail the technical wherewithal available at SBI’s disposal to connect the electoral bond donor with the political party receiving the money in a jiffy.

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There is something else as well. You would remember our story titled “Modi gov't illegally barred West Bengal from coal auction, benefiting a corporate” published a few days ago. The Coal Ministry has issued a public statement disputing the story.

The Collective carefully reviewed the statement, and found the coal ministry’s response to the investigation fails facts, omits evidence, is self-contradictory and ignores the evidence in the story. The Collective reaffirms every word in its investigative report and stands firmly behind its reporting.

We have published a detailed fact-check of the ministry’s statement. Click here to read it.