Saket Gokhale, Rana Ayyub and Shehla: Fundraisers which have landed in controversy

Fundraising platforms and other people looking for funds from the general public are each aplenty these days. There are a number of fundraising portals that present an possibility to gather funds for social work, comparable to Ketto, Donatekart and others. While quite a lot of good comes out of fundraisers, there have been cases the place the funding seekers bought into soup for allegedly misusing the funds. Here is a listing of prime controversial fundraisers that raised funds and eyebrows on the identical time.
Saket Gokhale and his fundraiser that he mentioned was his ‘salary’
Saket Gokhale emerged on the social media platforms claiming to be a ‘crusader’ towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, RSS and BJP. He projected himself as an RTI activist and expressed his want to ‘bring change’ in society by ‘exposing government’. In 2019, Gokhale launched a fundraiser and claimed he needed to do RTI activism full time, and for that, he requested for help from his fellow liberals. He managed to boost lakhs of rupees for the alleged activism.
Gokhale tweeted a hyperlink to his crowdfunding platform asking folks to cough up cash as a result of he selected to surrender his ‘cushy job’ to ‘fight the BJP/RSS’, which he normally did with submitting frivolous RTIs which price Rs 10. He urged different Modi haters to assemble and pay him so he may pay his payments and never should take up a daily job. At that point, he promised that he would give an account of each paisa he raised by way of fundraisers.
Gokhale submitted a number of RTIs and projected he was doing what he was paid for. However, as time handed by, his RTIs allegedly didn’t have any affect that the donors had anticipated. He raised a number of accusations towards leaders and their members of the family that turned out to be ballooned up out of proportion.
Source: Twitter
One of the advantageous examples was the allegations raised towards IFS officer Lakshmi Puri, spouse of union minister Hardeep Singh Puri. He alleged she purchased a home value $2.5 million in Switzerland, for which the couple didn’t have sufficient authentic sources of revenue. During the listening to of the defamation case filed towards him by Lakshmi Puri, the courtroom slammed Gokhale for his defamatory tweets towards a former diplomat with none due diligence.
Then got here the time when visibly Congress supporter, who donned his profile picture with Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on social media platforms, joined politics. From all of the events, he selected Trinamool Congress. More eyebrows had been raised, and at last, on January 1, he introduced that he was not obliged to provide “audited accounts” for his month-to-month dwelling bills. He has since claimed that the cash he had raised from crowdfunding is his ‘salary’.
Rana Ayyub and the curious case of returning international funds
Rana Ayyub, one other recurring faux information peddler who writes Islamist propaganda, had projected herself because the messiah of the poor and marginalized throughout the pandemic.
In the now-closed fundraisers on Ketto, Rana Ayyub had requested folks to donate cash for her trigger. Interestingly, she was not related to any NGO. Also, being a journalist, as per the FCRA tips, she can not elevate international funds. However, in her fundraising campaigns, international donations had been accepted.
Her first fundraiser was profitable, so she launched one other one throughout the second wave of Covid-19, which was once more profitable. She managed to gather a couple of crore rupees in donations and infrequently revealed pictures of herself donating meals and different vital gadgets to the needy.
But there was a catch. As per the fundraising platform tips, the marketing campaign organizer is chargeable for paying taxes and getting all required documentation. However, she appeared to receives a commission by the fundraising platform with out submitting the FCRA paperwork within the first case.
After the second fundraiser, objections had been raised on a social media platform, and she or he needed to return the international funding. She alleged that she tried to affiliate with an NGO to route the international funds however couldn’t. She additionally alleged that the federal government was utilizing her “charity work” to focus on her. At one level, Ketto needed to come ahead and concern a press release that her fundraiser was underneath probe.
Jignesh Mevani
In May 2021, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani backed a fundraiser launched by ‘We The People Charitable Trust’. After elevating some funds underneath the identify, complaints had been raised towards him as one other NGO by the identify ‘We The People Charitable Society’ had already existed.
The charity commissioner has identified that an NGO already existed underneath the identify ‘We The People Charitable Society’ and demanded to know why motion shouldn’t be taken towards the Trust for registering itself underneath a reputation similar to the one which already existed.
Eventually, the accounts linked to the NGO had been frozen by the authorities. Mevani, alternatively, alleged there was one thing improper with the intentions of the authorities, and there was nothing improper with the NGO. Notably, politicians can not elevate international funds underneath FCRA laws.
The Shehla Rashid and Deepika Singh Rajawat fiasco
Former JNU pupil, politician and alleged activist Shehla Rashid in affiliation with controversial lawyer Deepika Singh Rajawat ran a fundraiser marketing campaign in 2018, claiming they had been accumulating cash for the Kathua Rape sufferer. She raised lakhs for the household of the sufferer, and every thing was wanting good from the above. However, media studies recommended that the funds that had been collected for the sufferer’s household by no means reached them.
Notably, one of many fundamental activists of the marketing campaign, Talib Hussain, was later arrested on rape expenses and was despatched to jail. Shehla gave a number of excuses to show her innocence comparable to opening a joint account was troublesome attributable to lack of Aadhaar card, the cash was collected by them as there was no strategy to immediately switch funds to the sufferer’s household’s account or the household had refuted the media studies. But her claims had been systematically shattered by the netizens. The reporter who broke the story first, stood by her assertion and claimed she had recordings of the members of the family alleging they by no means bought the cash.
Interestingly, Deepika Singh Rajawat has joined Congress and at present serving as Spokesperson of the Jammu & Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee. It is noteworthy that Rajawat was fired by the sufferer’s household alleging she didn’t seem for the courtroom hearings. Reports recommended she solely attended two out of 110 hearings.
Source: Twitter
Shehla Rashid was additionally part of the Jammu & Kashmir People’s motion, a political celebration that was floated by IAS officer Shah Faesal.
Teesta Setalvad and accusations of embezzling cash meant for Godhra riot victims
Another noteworthy point out on this record is of Teesta Setalvad, a full-time aandolanjeevi. She has been accused of monetary fraud and embezzling cash meant for Godhra riot victims. In 2015, accusations had been levelled towards her for misusing funds that tuned to approx 1.51 crores collected for the Godhra riot victims.
Reports recommended that one in all her trusts violated FCRA legal guidelines. Sabrang Communication and Publishing Pvt Limited (SCPPL), with which Teesta is related, obtained $ 2.9 lakh from Ford Foundation as a grant to “address communalism, caste-based discrimination in India, including media strategies”. Notably, in contrast to the Sabrang Trust, the SCPPL was not registered underneath FCRA, therefore not eligible to obtain international funds.
CBI performed searches at her residence and places of work in connection to the case. The Gujarat Police mentioned that Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand had spent cash collected for establishing a memorial for riot victims and their assist on private bills that included wine and liquor, costly cell phones, film CDs, romantic novels, hair-styling, eating, amongst different avenues. According to the police, the 2 dedicated “colossal fraud”.
Further investigation revealed that out of the funds Sabrang Trust obtained between 2009-13, 45% had been transferred to Setalvad and her husband’s account both immediately or by means of SCPPL. It additionally mentioned that she drew a wage of Rs. 8.75 lakhs and flew 113 occasions in a yr.
Among her many FCRA associated points, it was found that Rs 1 lakh was allegedly transferred to a home account, which is taken into account as misutilisation of funds. Furthermore, 65% of the international funds had been spent on administrative bills, one thing that isn’t allowed as per regulation.
Setalvad and others had been booked underneath Sections 13 (1)(D) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act in addition to underneath Sections 120 B, 153 A, 153 B, 406, 409 and 420 of the IPC in 2018.
Alleged ‘environment activist’ Licypriya Kangujam’s fundraiser
So-called child-environment activist Licypriya Kangujam, who was typically referred to as ‘Greta of India’, had began a fundraiser throughout the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. She bought herself related to Delhi-based NGO Noble Citizen Foundation and raised over 75 lakhs for oxygen cylinders and concentrators. However, there have been a number of issues with the marketing campaign. First of all, FCRA laws weren’t adopted which accumulating donations. The NGO that was supposed to gather funds didn’t have an FCRA license.
The firm that the ‘activist’, or relatively her father who used her identify and identification for his actions, used to allegedly buy oxygen concentrators had no hyperlinks to buying medical gear. Moreover, the founders of the NGO had been outdated associates of Licypriya’s father that raised extra questions. After her father was arrested for duping lots of of scholars, her fundraiser additionally got here underneath the radar, and a probe was initiated towards it.
Foreign funding and irregularities
From Khalistani sympathizers of Hemkunt Foundation and Khalsa Aid to funds raised by folks for journey and research overseas, there are quite a lot of questions that must be answered. Notably, the federal government of India lately cancelled FCRA licenses of over 6,000 NGOs. Thousands of licences had been cancelled over the previous seven years, together with that of Amnesty India, OXFAM and Jamia Milia Islamia.