UP firm gave Rs 10 crore to BJP less than a month after bagging contract for Kashmir tunnel

In December 2019, when Jammu and Kashmir was still reeling from the aftermath of having been stripped off its special status under the Constitution and statehood, a Lucknow-based infrastructure firm Apco Infratech Private Limited secured a contract in the Kashmir Valley to build a tunnel.

On December 19, 2019, Apco Infratech was issued a “letter of award” by the Union territory administration to execute the construction of the 6.4 km-long Z-Morh tunnel in Ganderbal district.

Being built at a cost of Rs 2,716 crores, the tunnel will provide an all-weather road connectivity to the popular hill station Sonamarg and beyond. It also has strategic implications for India’s national security as it is situated on the Srinagar-Leh national highway.

Less than four weeks after receiving the go-ahead for the project, the firm on 15 January, 2020, purchased 10 electoral bonds worth Rs 1 crore each. The Bharatiya Janata Party encashed the bonds six days later.

Since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir has been under the direct rule of the BJP-led Centre.

Apco Infratech did not purchase bonds only in 2020. It also bought Rs 10 crore worth of bonds in 2022, followed by the same amount in 2023 – a total of Rs 30 crore.

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