A special CBI court on Friday, April 12, stayed the order delivered by the magistrate’s court in Delhi that directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to withdraw the lookout circular issued against Aakar Patel, former Amnesty International India head. The court noted that since the CBI has filed a revision plea and Aakar has separately moved court seeking contempt action against CBI, the order passed by the court earlier on the issue has been stayed. A Delhi court had recently stayed portions of the order directing CBI to give a written apology to Aakar as he was not allowed to fly out of Bengaluru airport on the grounds that the CBI had issued a lookout circular against him.
A Delhi court had earlier instructed Aakar not to leave the country without its prior permission and had stayed an order directing the CBI to withdraw a Lookout Circular (LOC) issued against him in a case relating to the alleged violation of the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA).
Journalist and writer Patel was on his way to the US when he was stopped from leaving the country at the Bengaluru airport on Wednesday citing a lookout circular issued against him by the CBI in connection with an FCRA (Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 case. After being stopped, Aakar had moved court, and the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pawan Kumar of the Rouse Avenue court had also sought a written apology from the CBI director. However, despite a court order, he was stopped at the airport a second time. He then moved court again with a contempt of court application against the CBI. In turn, CBI filed a revision petition against the magistrate’s order. The CBI court is expected to pass the order on Wednesday, April 13.
Meanwhile, the Union government has given the sanction to the CBI to prosecute Aakar Patel and Amnesty International India for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). The CBI had sought the sanction of the government to prosecute the international human rights organisation because of the mandatory clause of Section 40 of the FCRA.
Section 40 bars any court to take cognisance of an offence under the FCRA without the previous sanction of the Central Government or any officer authorised by that Government on its behalf.
The case was registered against Amnesty International India Pvt Ltd (AIIPL), Indians For Amnesty International Trust (IAIT), Amnesty International India Foundation Trust (AIIFT), Amnesty International South Asia Foundation (AISAF) and others in November 2019. It was alleged that the provision of the FCRA and IPC were contravened by the aforesaid entities by receiving foreign contributions from Amnesty International UK through AIIPL even though prior registration or permissions were denied to AIIFT and other trusts under FCRA, the officials said.
After the searches that took place post-FIR, Amnesty International India alleged that over the past year, a pattern of "harassment" has emerged every time Amnesty International India stands up and speaks out against "human rights violations" in India.
"Amnesty International India stands in full compliance with Indian and international law. Our work in India, as elsewhere, is to uphold and fight for universal human rights. These are the same values that are enshrined in the Indian Constitution and flow from a long and rich Indian tradition of pluralism, tolerance, and dissent," the Amnesty said in the statement.
According to a complaint filed by the Home Ministry to the CBI, AIIPL is a 'for-profit' company. It was observed that the London-based Amnesty International worked through four companies, which have been named by the CBI in the case. It is alleged that a payment of Rs 10 crore, classified as Foreign Direct Investment, was remitted to Amnesty India from the London office without taking the home ministry's approval. Another Rs 26 crore has been remitted to Amnesty India, "primarily from the UK based entities," it alleged.
"All such receipts have subsequently been expended on Amnesty's NGO activities in India, in violation of FCRA," it said. It alleged that Amnesty made several attempts to obtain prior permission or registration under FCRA, failing which, it used "commercial methods to evade FCRA." It further alleged that Amnesty India received funds for purposes like 'service contract', 'advance income' and FDI through an automatic route. Out of the Rs 36 crore received, Rs 10 crore were remitted as FDI, Rs 26 crore as payment for consultancy services, it claimed.
The UK-based Amnesty International invested Rs 10 crore to AIIPL on September 24, 2015. The amount was classified as 'compulsory convertible debenture' but was shown in Income Tax returns as "long term borrowing." While forwarding the complaint, the home ministry directed the CBI to rope in the Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate in case violations of relevant acts were found during the investigation.