ED attaches properties price Rs 17.66 cr of Amnesty International in India

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Tuesday mentioned that it has provisionally connected movable properties price Rs. 17.66 crores of NGO Amnesty International.
The transfer comes months after the NGO introduced the closure of its operations in India following the freezing of its financial institution accounts by the ED as a part of a probe right into a 2018 case.
“The complete freezing of Amnesty International India’s bank accounts by the Government of India which it came to know on 10 September 2020, brings all the work being done by the organization to a grinding halt,” Amnesty International India had mentioned in an announcement in Septemeber 2020.
The NGO had known as the freezing of its accounts “akin to freezing dissent” and mentioned the motion was “the latest in the incessant witch-hunt of human rights organizations”, leaving them unable to hold on with marketing campaign and analysis work in India.
Amnesty had informed The Indian Express over e mail that they’d method the Karnataka High Court.
Responding to Amnesty’s declare, the Union Home Minister had mentioned that the NGOs claims of “witch hunt” had been “far from the truth”.

The Ministry mentioned Amnesty had been given permission below the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) solely as soon as, in 2000, and since denied the identical regardless of requests, together with by the UPA authorities. It had accused Amnesty UK of circumventing the laws by remitting massive quantities of cash to 4 entities registered in India, by classifying it as FDI.
In October 2018, properties of Amnesty India in Bengaluru had been searched by the ED after the Amnesty International India Foundation Trust was accused of making a business arm known as Amnesty International India Pvt Ltd (AIIPL) allegedly to obtain international funding in violation of the FCRA guidelines.
According to ED, Amnesty International India had “obtained international funds via a business path to the extent of Rs 36 crore’’. Out of this, Rs 10 crore had been obtained as long-term mortgage and positioned in fastened deposits whereas an Indian entity, Indians for Amnesty International Trust, had established an overdraft facility for Rs 14.25 crore with the ten crore as collateral, the ED had alleged.