CBI raids Harsh Mander for violations in the usage of foreign contributions

The MHA had recommended a CBI probe last year into the foreign funding of an NGO founded by Mander

February 2, 2024

CBI raids think tank Centre for Equity Studies, Harsh Mander in alleged FCRA violation case; files FIR

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday raided the residence and office of activist Harsh Mander as part of a probe into alleged violation of foreign contribution regulations by his NGO, Centre for Equity Studies. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) directed the CBI to investigate Mander’s NGO, which was found to act as a conduit for transferring foreign contributions to non-FCRA associations. Mander’s FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) license was suspended last year.

Harsh Mander is a former IAS officer and was a Member of Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council during the UPA regime. A CBI spokesperson said in a statement that “the NGO had transferred Rs.32,71,915 other than salary or wages or remuneration from its FCRA account into the account of the individual(s) during 2020-21 in violation of the provisions of FCRA, 2010”.

“The NGO had also diverted funds from its FCRA account through the firm(s) in violation of the provisions of FCRA, 2010,” the spokesperson said. CES’s FCRA licence was suspended in June last year. Mander is also the founder of the NGO Aman Biradari Trust. While suspending the FCRA licence of CES in June 2023, the MHA said that section 3 of FCRA prohibits acceptance of foreign contributions by correspondents, columnists, cartoonists, editors, owners, printers, and publishers of a registered newspaper. Mander has regularly been writing columns for major English dailies.

“He accepted foreign contributions amounting to Rs.12,64,671 during the financial year 2011-12 to 2017-18 as professional receipts or payments from the FCRA account of the association (CES). This is in violation of Sections 3 and 8 of the FCRA,” MHA said in its June 2023 order.

“The association has utilized foreign contribution for preparation and publication of reports in which non-FCRA association is one of the authors and such non-FCRA association have not contributed any funds for the publication of such reports. The association has thus acted as a conduit for the transfer of foreign contributions to non-FCRA associations. One such example is a report titled ‘Labouring Lives: Hunger Precarity and Despair amid Lockdown.”

A report by the Centre for Equity Studies in collaboration with Delhi Research Group and Karwan-E-Mohabbat’ was published by CES in June 2020. Karwan-e-Mohabbat is a campaign run under the non-FCRA association Aman Biradari Trust (ABT) which is closely associated with Centre of Equity Studies and Harsh Mander,” said MHA order.

“Such utilization of foreign contributions received by CES for preparing and publishing reports in the name of non-FCRA registered organizations (co-authors in addition to CES and donor organizations) amounts to a violation of Section 7 of the Act,” it said.

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