The Allana Group, which is one of India's leading exporters of processed food particularly meat, donated Rs 5 crore worth electoral bonds to Shiv Sena and then donated Rs 2 crore worth bonds to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
This information has come forth after the State Bank of India (SBI) submitted all the remaining electoral bond details, including the alphanumeric numbers or the bond numbers on Thursday, 21 March.
You can read all our stories on electoral bonds here.
The Quint tallied the bond numbers and here is what we found out.
Five bonds of Rs 1 crore each was bought by Allana Cold Storage, Allanasons Private Limited, Frigorifico Allana Private Limited on 9 July 2019.
The Shiv Sena encashed these five electoral bonds on 11 July 2019.
Allanasons Private Limited bought another bond worth Rs 1 crore on 9 October 2019.
BJP encashed this bond on 19 October 2019.
Frigerio Conserva Allana then bought another bond worth Rs 1 crore on 22 January 2020.
BJP encashed this bond on 3 February 2020.
Previously, The Quint had reported before that the two main buffalo and beef exporting companies — Allanasons Private Limited and Frigorifico Allana Private Limited — are promoted by the Allana group of companies.
In January 2019, the Mumbai wing of the Income Tax department carried out raids early that month at Allana group. The raids were reportedly conducted at over 100 units for over two days, as per The Economic Times.
In April, the same year, the Department alleged that the group had evaded Rs 2,000 crores in tax. The group bought the electoral bonds ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
In fact, one bond worth Rs 1 crore was encashed by the BJP very close to the state elections in October 2019, as mentioned above.
Prior to this, in December 2015, it was revealed that BJP received Rs 2.50 crore in donations from Frigorifico Allana Limited, Frigerio Converva Allana Limited and Indagro Foods Limited.
Established in 1865, Allanasons Private Limited's website states that they are "top Exporter , Manufacturer and Supplier of the highest yield of Branded Processed Food Products and Agro Commodities."
Their annual turnover as, they state is Rs. 500 - 1,000 crore.
The company is listed with the stock exchange with Sharjah-based Shiraz AR Allana as its promoter. Allana group as a whole is under Abdulla Allana.
On the other hand, Frigorifico Allana Private Limited was incorporated on 5 September 1986. Established in 2013, their website reads that "FAL is the consumer product division of the 150+ years old Allana Group based in Mumbai."
Both of these companies have the same Director — Anwar Husain Chauhan.
A Mumbai-resident, Chauhan is also associated with 32 Companies and is as a 'Casual Vacancy Director' with Hilal Foods Private Limited, Director with Allana Trading And Exports Limited, Ivp Limited, Allana Frozen Foods Private Limited, Frigorifico Allana Private Limited.
The other two companies — Allanasons Cold Storage Private Limited and Frigerio Conserva Allana — are mentioned as 'facilities' on Allana group's website.
Both of them are headed by different Directors, Suhail Siddiqui Batatawala is the Director of the former and Sanjay Padmakar Dhige is the Director of the latter, as per Zauba corp.
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