Electoral Bonds: Firm That Built Collapsed Uttarkashi Tunnel Gave Rs 55Cr to BJP

Navayuga Engineering, that built the Uttarkashi tunnel, donated Rs 55 crore in electoral bonds to the BJP.

Navayuga Engineering Co. that built the collapsed Uttarkashi tunnel, donated Rs 55 crore electoral bonds to BJP, data reveals

(Altered by The Quint)

Navayuga Engineering Company Limited — which built Uttarkashi's Silkyara tunnel that had collapsed on 12 November 2023, trapping 41 workers for over 16 days — donated at least Rs 55 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019 and 2022, as per the latest electoral bonds' data released by the ECI.

The Quint had earlier reported that Navayuga Engineering had purchased at least 55 electoral bonds worth Rs 1 crore each, as per the first electoral bonds' dataset released by the ECI on 14 March.

Now on Thursday, 21 March, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has released fresh data, which also contains the previously hidden unique alphanumeric code of each electoral bond, after the Supreme Court ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to share the same with the poll body.

By matching these unique alphanumeric codes in two separate datasets, The Quint was able to ascertain that all the bonds bought by the Navayuga Engineering Company Limited — over 55 bonds of Rs 1 crore each — were encashed by the BJP.

It is pertinent to note that no action has been taken so far against Navayuga Engineering in the 2023 Uttarkashi Tunnel Collapse case.

When Was the Rs 55 Crore Donated to BJP?

Navayuga Engineering Company Limited had purchased 45 electoral bonds worth Rs 45 crore in 2019 and another 10 bonds worth Rs 10 crore in 2022.

All the electoral bonds purchased by the company were of Rs 1 crore denomination each.

Navayuga Engineering Company Limited had purchased 30 electoral bonds worth Rs 30 crore on 18 April 2019. The BJP encashed all 30 of these bonds on 23 April 2019. This was a month before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Quint had earlier reported that the BJP had encashed at least Rs 1,700 crore in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, highest among any parties.

Navayuga Engineering bought another 15 electoral bonds worth Rs 15 crore on 10 October 2019. The BJP encashed all 15 of these bonds on 15 October 2019.

The firm didn't buy any electoral bonds in 2020 or 2021.

Its next purchase was on 2022, when the company bought 10 electoral bonds worth Rs 10 crore on 10 October 2022. The BJP encashed all of these bonds on 11 October 2022.

Raids and Kickbacks

In July 2018, the Registrar of Companies had raided the Hyderabad premises of Navayuga Engineering, in connection with an alleged money laundering case.

In October 2018 as well, the Income Tax department had raided the company over alleged tax evasion.

Apart from the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel, which was a part of the Modi government’s Char Dham all-weather accessibility project, Navayuga Engineering was also awarded many other government projects.

The website of Navayuga Engineering Co. Ltd. features a Government of India project it had built in 2017.

(Source: Screenshot of their website)

In 2020, Navayuga was also granted the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail-link. Besides that, it also built the Dhola-Sadia Bridge, over the Brahmaputra river in Assam, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2017.

Touted to be 'India's Longest River Bridge', this project finds mention at the very top of the homepage of Navayuga's website. The caption below reads: "Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India's longest river bridge, the Dhola-Sadia bridge in Assam."