On Friday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth Rs 1.54 crore of a charitable trust linked to dubious NGO Amnesty International India under the anti-money laundering law for alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. “A provisional order for attachment has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). With this attachment, the total attachment now stands at Rs 21.08 crores”, the ED said.
According to the reports, the order has been issued against the so-called NGO trust named Indians for Amnesty International Trust (IAIT), in connection with a case involving an alleged breach of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The ED issued a statement that the organization carried out NGO activities in the guise of services export and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to escape the FCRA laws.
ED has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 1.54 crores in bank accounts of Indians for Amnesty International Trust (IAIT) under PMLA, 2002. With this attachment, the total attachment now stands at Rs 21.08 crores, says the agency.
— ANI (@ANI) October 7, 2022
The CBI has already charged IAIT with similar allegations. When the government denied FCRA permission to Amnesty International India Foundation Trust (AIIFT) to receive foreign contributions, the UK-based parent organization formed Amnesty International India Pvt Ltd (AIIPL) and Indians Amnesty International Trust (IAIT) to avoid the FCRA regulations in 2013-14 and 2012-13, respectively.
“Investigation by ED found that upon cancellation of FCRA Licence of AIIFT, a new method was adopted by Amnesty entities to receive money from abroad and Amnesty International UK sent Rs 51.72 crore to AIIPL in the guise of export of services and foreign direct investment”, the statement mentioned.
The Amnesty organisations used a new approach to acquire funds from outside. However, the ED stated that there was no documented proof of the purported export, such as invoices and copies of the agreement, produced during the enquiry. According to ED, a UK-based parent organization appears to have invested in Amnesty International India Pvt. Ltd (AIIPL) using compulsory convertible debentures. Following that, another Indian business, IAIT was issued an overdraft facility for Rs 14.25 crore, using AIIPL’s Rs 10 crore FD as security.
“The overdraft facility was used by IAIT for Amnesty India’s NGO activities including salary and administrative and operational expenses. Therefore, the FDI received by AIIPL was being used by the IAIT, Bengaluru to carry out its NGO activities and it is seen that there is a layering of remittances received by AIIPL, a company, into IAIT, which is a charitable trust”, the ED was quoted.
The charge sheet was filed by ED on July 9 against Amnesty International India Pvt Ltd (AIIPL), Indians for Amnesty International Trust (IAIT), and former AIIPL CEOs G Ananthapadmanabhan and Aakar Patel, accusing them of money laundering. The ED in its prosecution complaint had alleged that the parent organization had routed more than Rs 51 crore to Amnesty India in violation of FCRA to ‘fund anti-national activities in the guise of export of services’.
As per the agency, there were 47 projects taken by the NGO. Out of these, 12 projects that AIIPL did for Amnesty International were marked as ‘Technical Services’. Apart from those, six were linked to Kashmir, two were linked to the 1984 Sikh Massacre, six were linked to the coal section, three to women-related matters, two related to migrants issues, eight were linked to human rights awareness, three to ‘ready to report’ and four linked to undertrial matters.
On several occasions, Amnesty International and its Indian chapter have been found to be involved in anti-India activities. In a report published in OpIndia in 2019, the connections between Amnesty International India, the British government, and radical Islamists were exposed. The organisation has a history of meddling with the internal affairs of India. It has constantly been trying to falsely project India as a violator of human rights and the ‘oppressor’ of Muslims.
On several occasions, Amnesty India and its former head Aakar Patel kept peddling blatant lies and fake news to portray India negatively. It also campaigned for the arrested Urban Naxals in the Bhima Koregaon violence case. Therefore, its actions are clearly tantamount to foreign interference in the domestic issues of India, and it is only appropriate that strict action is taken against it.
