On Wednesday, the Delhi Rouse Avenue Court sought the response of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the plea moved by Aakar Patel, former chief of Amnesty International India. Chief Metropolitan Pawan Kumar issued notice on Patel’s application and sought a response from CBI for removal and withdrawal of the Look Out Circular against Patel and seeking permission to travel to the US till May 30 to take up his assignments and lecture series.
Patel on April 6 was stopped at Bengaluru airport from boarding a flight to the USA. He took to Twitter to inform us that the CBI had put him on the exit control list because of the case against Amnesty International India regarding the FCRA violations. “Stopped from leaving India at Bangalore airport. I am on the exit control list. Got passport back through court order specifically for this trip to the US”, he tweeted this morning.
In February this year, the Enforcement Directorate had attached movable properties of Amnesty India worth Rs 17.66 crore in a money laundering case. During the investigations, ED had found that after the cancellation of the FCRA license by the Indian government, Amnesty International India Foundation Trust and Amnesty entities had adopted ‘new methods’ to receive money from abroad.
Earlier in November 2019, the CBI officers had raided Amnesty India offices in New Delhi and Bengaluru where it had come to the fore that the organization had allegedly violated the FCRA (Foreign Currency Regulation Act) provisions.
It was reported that activities carried out by Amnesty India were not commensurate with activities of a for-profit company. These activities by Amnesty India were allegedly either prohibited or were regulated under the FCRA. The CBI had said that Amnesty International (UK) invested approximately 10 crores as a fixed deposit (FD) in Amnesty India Private Limited, Bengaluru, by subscribing to the debt instruments, and debentures.
CBI had registered an FIR against Amnesty International India Foundation Trust and Amnesty International South Asia Foundation under sections of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and the Indian Penal Code (120-B which denotes criminal conspiracy). Based on CBI’s FIR, ED had also registered a money laundering case against the NGO. The matter will now be heard tomorrow at 10 am on Thursday.