Amnesty International India said it was halting its activities in the country due to freezing of its accounts by the government in what the NGO described as the latest in an "incessant witch hunt" of human rights organisations over unfounded and motivated allegations. Amnesty said it learned about the Enforcement Directorate (ED) freezing its bank accounts on September 10 and the move compelled it to let go of its staff in India and pause all ongoing campaign and research work.
The crackdown over the last two years and the complete freezing of bank accounts, it said in a statement, "was not accidental".
‘Violated foreign contribution law’
Refuting the allegation of “witch hunt” levelled against the government by Amnesty International India, the home ministry said the human rights NGO was facing a probe for circumventing the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 by receiving foreign funds remitted through the FDI route.
ED 1st raided Amnesty on October 25, 2018
The constant harassment by government agencies, including the ED, is a result of our unequivocal calls for transparency in the government, more recently for accountability of Delhi Police and the government of India regarding the grave human rights violations during the Delhi riots and in Jammu & Kashmir,” Avinash Kumar, executive director of Amnesty International India, said, adding the latest attack was akin to "freezing dissent".
The ED first raided Amnesty on October 25, 2018. Following that, the agency has been probing the NGO’s sources of funding and violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). In 2019, Amnesty was served a show-cause notice and in 2020 the ED began its probe into money laundering. In all matters, investigation is still on and hasn’t reached the stage of filing charges. No arrests have been made.
“Amnesty endured a 10-hour-long raid by the ED in 2018, but most of the information and documents that were demanded during the search were already available in the public domain or filed with the relevant government authorities," it said. Then, in early 2019, Amnesty alleged that the I-T department started sending investigative letters to more than 30 small regular donors even though it did not find any irregularities. "But the process adversely affected our fundraising campaigns," it added. Amnesty claimed it stood in full compliance with all applicable Indian and international laws. It said the ED’s freezing of its accounts in September was a likely reaction to the two reports its released — one in August on the situation of human rights in J&K and the second on Delhi riots — that were not favourable to the government.
