The government and Amnesty International, the UK-based NGO working for human rights, have locked horns over the crackdown by investigating agencies, who claim that a private limited company called Amnesty India International Pvt. Ltd had been receiving funds in the garb of “export proceeds”—which led to the freezing of its bank deposit.
Amnesty International has claimed a witch-hunt and halted its India operations but the case has taken a curious turn with probe agencies saying it’s not the NGO but the private limited company that is facing a crackdown and Amnesty may come clean on what kind of services it was receiving from the private limited company.
Meanwhile, the Amit Shah-led union home ministry issued a strong statement saying all the glossy statements made by Amnesty “about humanitarian work and speaking truth to power are nothing but a ploy to divert attention from their activities which were in clear contravention of laid down Indian laws.”
According to ED officials, the Enforcement Directorate probe is not against the activities of the London based NGO, but against the private limited company called Amnesty India International Pvt. Ltd.
This company and some Indians working for Amnesty International Trust are under investigation both under provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and the Prevention of Money laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).
The ED probe has revealed that M/s. Amnesty International India Pvt. Ltd. has allegedly received “export proceeds" to the tune of Rs 51.72 crore between financial years 2014-19 from M/s. Amnesty International, U.K.
“However, investigation has proved that no services were exported and the amounts so received was in contravention to provisions of FEMA and PMLA,” said an ED official.
The contravention has led to freezing of the balance deposit in the bank accounts of Amnesty India International Pvt. Ltd. and Indians for Amnesty International Trust.
Sources in the agency said that the action of enforcement agency of freezing bank balance was challenged before the High Court of Karnataka by both these entities and the action of the enforcement agency was found legally Justified.
“It is to clarify here that no other fund except for alleged export proceeds received from Amnesty International, U.K. is under investigation or freezing under the law,” said an ED official.
Investigators told THE WEEK that a sum of nearly Rs 30 crore has been frozen after the agency found that the “proceeds” were diverted to organising protests in the country, including Jammu and Kashmir. The investigations revealed that Amnesty did not get FCRA clearance and subsequently the private limited company was set up which started receiving “export proceeds” for the services given by it. When the ED sleuths started investigating the kind of services being provided, it found that the same were within the jurisdiction of the country. “If these services meant organising protests in the country , then Amnesty should explain that,” said a sleuth.
Meanwhile, the union home ministry minced no words in decrying the Amnesty International statement claiming that it was being forced to shut down operations in India because it was taking up issues of human rights violations.
“The stand taken and the statements made by Amnesty International are unfortunate, exaggerated and far from the truth,” said the MHA statement. The foreigners division of the union home ministry gives permission to foreign funding received by NGOs under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act based on certain laid down guidelines. But, Amnesty International, despite repeated applications, was denied FCRA permission .
“Amnesty International had received permission under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) only once and that too twenty years ago On December 19,2000.”
“Since then Amnesty International, despite its repeated applications, has been denied FCRA approval by successive governments since as per law it is not eligible to get such an approval,” added the MHA.
The MHA said that in order to circumvent the FCRA regulations, Amnesty UK remitted large amounts of money to four entities registered in India, by classifying it as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
A significant amount of foreign money was also remitted to Amnesty (India) without MHA’s approval under FCRA. This mala fide rerouting of money was in contravention of extant legal provisions, it said.
Owing to these illegal practices of Amnesty, the previous government had also rejected the repeated applications of Amnesty to receive funds from overseas. This had led Amnesty to suspend its India operations once during that period as well.
The home ministry said that its bipartisan and purely legal approach towards Amnesty, under different governments, “makes it clear that the entire fault lies in the dubious processes adopted by Amnesty to secure funds for its operations.”
The government also alleged that the defence being put up by Amnesty was another attempt to extraneously influence the course of investigations by multiple agencies into the irregularities and illegalities carried out over the last few years.
Meanwhile, it said Amnesty is free to continue humanitarian work in India, as is being done by many other organizations.
“However, India, by settled law, does not allow interference in domestic political debates by entities funded by foreign donations. This law applies equally to all and it shall apply to Amnesty International as well.”
Praising the “rich and pluralistic" democratic culture of the country “with a free press, independent judiciary and tradition of vibrant domestic debate,” the home ministry went into overdrive to defend the ruling BJP Government.
“The people of India have placed unprecedented trust in the current government. Amnesty’s failure to comply with local regulations does not entitle them to make comments on the democratic and plural character of India,” it said.