After Amnesty International India abruptly closed its shutters and flew the country in September last year — questions were raised on the organisation’s dubious financial records and its history. Fast forward five months and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has tightened the noose around Amnesty by attaching movable properties worth Rs 17.66 crore of two entities of the NGO in connection with a money laundering case. The total attachments in the case now stand at Rs 19.54 crore.
ED said in a statement that a provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) “attaching bank accounts of Amnesty International India Pvt Ltd (AIIPL) and Indians for Amnesty International Trust (IAIT).”
“Amnesty International India Foundation Trust (AIIFT) had been granted permission under the FCRA during 2011-12 for receiving foreign contribution from the Amnesty International UK,” it added. However, the statement said the same was cancelled based on the “adverse” inputs received.
It is pertinent to note that upon cancellation of the FCRA license by the Union government, Amnesty International India Foundation Trust and all its entities adopted a “new method” to receive money from abroad.
As reported earlier by TFI, 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.
The agency’s report suggested that Amnesty International, UK sent Rs 51.72 crore to AIIPL in the guise of export of services and the FDI.
Anti-national activities and Amnesty
When the NGO was forced to wind up its operation in the country, it claimed that the government had started “incessant witch-hunt of human rights organisations.”
Read more: Amnesty International cried ‘witch hunt’, but here’s the real reason why it shut shop in India
Also reported by TFI earlier, the Union government had called out the NGO by saying that “Human Rights cannot be an excuse for defying the law of the land”. Amnesty India, under the garb of an NGO, indulged in various anti-national activities and had worked constantly to the detriment of India.
In July last year, while sharing a report of Black Lives Matter protest, Aakar Patel, the former head of Amnesty India had urged the Muslim community, women, and SC/ STs in India to protest in a similar manner for the ‘world to notice’, opining that ‘protests are a craft’. Shortly after, he was blocked on Twitter.
Hate monger Aakar Patel's account witheld because he was trying to incite riots.
Twitter didn't suspend his account for such hate tweets, just restricted in India. pic.twitter.com/roSTockfgb
— Ankur Singh (Modi Ka Parivar) (@iAnkurSingh) June 11, 2020
Amnesty International can cry us a river but it isn’t going to change the facts which have been laid bare by the government and the ED. The foreign NGO worked in sinister ways, often receiving funding from anti-national forces looking to sow seeds of chaos in the country. However, the Modi administration has come down heavily on the NGO mafias and Amnesty – the biggest player among them is now facing the music.