CBI is raiding the residence and office of IAS-turned-social activist Harsh Mander in connection with the FCRA violation case. According to reports, the Central Bureau of Investigation has questioned several people in connection with the case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is conducting raids in a new case related to alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. As part of its preliminary investigation, the agency has questioned many people related to the case.
— ANI (@ANI) February 2, 2024
A money laundering probe was initiated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in September 2021, where Mander’s residence was previously raided. The investigation is centred around two NGOs associated with him.
Per reports, the raids are in connection the FCRA violations by his NGO, Aman Biradari.
As per the rule, all NGOs receiving foreign funding have to compulsorily register with the Home Ministry under the FCRA. According to its website, Aman Biradari is a ‘grassroots movement’ dedicated to creating a secular, peaceful, just, and compassionate world. Its goal is to achieve this by establishing community-based organizations at the village and district levels, primarily consisting of young people and women from various backgrounds and faiths, the website says. It further adds that these organizations aim to foster greater tolerance, fraternity, respect, and peaceful coexistence between individuals of different religions, castes, and linguistic groups.
While the MHA had recommended a CBI inquiry into Harsh Mandar over FCRA violations in 2023, the controversial left-wing ‘activist’ has a chequered history of bringing disrepute to the judiciary and inciting Muslim mobs against the Indian state.
In March 2020, Mander courted controversy after a video of him inciting Muslim mobs against the Indian State and judiciary went viral on social media. Mander had said that decisions pertaining to matters of the state shall not be delivered by the Supreme Court or the Parliament but will be made in the streets. Following the incident, the Delhi Police had filed an affidavit against Harsh Mander in the Supreme Court accusing him not only of inciting violence but also of bringing disrepute to the Judiciary and had sought contempt of court proceedings against him.
Who is Harsh Mander
Harsh Mander had worked in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) for almost two decades and quit the services ‘in protest’ against the ‘state-sponsored riots’ in Gujarat in 2002. Since he left the IAS, Harsh Mander has spent quite a colourful life in ‘civil society’ organizations. Among his many contributions, he has worked as the country director of ActionAid India. However, he is most famous for his service in Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council (NAC) which drafted the anti-Hindu Communal Violence Bill.
Interestingly, earlier in October 2022, the MHA had cancelled the FCRA registration of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) and the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT), two NGOs headed by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, for alleged violations of FCRA laws.
Judicial Interventions by Harsh Mander
Harsh Mander is also a known Ishrat apologist, the female LeT operative who was killed in an encounter along with three others by Crime Branch Officials in Gujarat. He was also one of the individuals who had signed a mercy petition for the Mumbai Attack Terrorist Yakub Memon, was among the 203 persons who had signed the mercy petition for Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab and had signed the mercy petition for Afzal Guru also. Apart from such antics, his judicial interventions have been many. Last year, Harsh Mander filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the recusal of then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi from hearing a case relating to the condition of detention camps and deportation of illegal immigrants from Assam.
Harsh Mander was also one of the forty ‘activists’ who had filed a review petition in the Court against the Ayodhya Verdict that paved the way for a Bhavya Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. He was also part of the coterie that had filed a petition against the Citizenship Amendment Act. It is important to remember here that Harsh Mander did all of this while being associated with foreign-funded NGOs.
Harsh Mander’s role in the CAA unrest
Harsh Mander with his organization ‘Karwaan-e-Mohabbat’ published a report on the violence at the Aligarh Muslim University that absolved the students of all sins and peddled numerous lies against the Uttar Pradesh Police. Later, of course, the entire report turned out to be a massive fraud. Harsh Mander had also promised to register himself as a Muslim if the CAB was passed but OpIndia has not been able to confirm yet if he has gone through with his promise after the CAB became CAA. He has also spread great lies about the NRC in the past and the foreign tribunals in Assam.
Earlier, Mander was part of a coterie that had penned a letter against the CAB. Harsh Mander and his NGO Karwan-e-Mohabbat were very active at the protests in Shaheen Bagh, the anti-CAA protests masterminded by the notorious Radical Islamist Sharjeel Imam. Interestingly, Harsh Mander has spoken on the ‘importance of solidarity’ and ‘how we can practice civil disobedience in today’s India’. Karwan-e-Mohabbat had also urged people to join the protests at the notorious Shaheen Bagh protests.
