The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has conducted searches in three locations in Tamil Nadu in connection with a case against Caruna Bal Vikas (CBV), Adhane Management Consultants, Bentinck Higher Secondary School and others for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
“The searches were carried out on the premises of Rampart Patnaiya, Deva Anugraham Daniel and Christopher Rajkumar, directors of Adhane Management Consultants, in Chennai and Yelagiri hills,” said a CBI official.
The case was registered a week ago, on a complaint from the Union Home Ministry’s FCRA wing. It alleged that CBV had used a part of foreign receipts for religious activities. The non-government organisation received funds from Compassion International-United States during the check period.
“Further, CBV has, inter alia, declared its long term objective of ‘converting poor children into fulfilled Christian adults’, and thus engaged in religious activities, including conversions to Christianity. Such activities have the potential to disturb communal harmony and therefore, are in violation of the Section 12(4)(f)(vi) of the FCRA, 2010,” the FIR alleged.
According to the Income-Tax Department’s report, CBV used only 10% of foreign contributions for the declared purposes and the remaining was diverted to 300 NGOs in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and other States. Some of these were not registered under the FCRA. The FCRA wing alleged that ₹1 crore was transferred about to non-FCRA registered Bentinck Higher Secondary School, during 2011-14. After the Income-Tax Department initiated a probe against it in 2013, Adhane Management Consultants was allegedly set up in July 2014. The FIR alleged that the CEO of CBV and the company and their directors were the same, and the registered address of the two entities were also the same, in Chennai.
After the company was incorporated, the funds from Compassion International-USA, earlier channelled via CBV, was shifted almost entirely to it, as alleged.
CBV received ₹6.75 crore in 2014-15, as against ₹109.50 crore in 2011-12, ₹130.52 crore in 2012-13 and ₹111.71 crore in 2013-14.
