Delhi NGO diverted foreign donations through 500 bank accounts: UP ATS

Over 500 suspicious bank accounts in Delhi are being investigated by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad for alleged FCRA violations and terror funding. The accounts were opened in the names of illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar and were used to divert donations received by a Delhi-based NGO. A student from Assam, who opened the accounts in 2020, has been arrested and is being questioned. The investigation has revealed that funds were transferred to these accounts in smaller amounts and then withdrawn. The NGO is suspected of using the money for anti-national activities.

Over 500 ‘suspicious’ bank accounts registered in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Delhi are under the scanner of Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS), which is investigating foreign fundings received by a Delhi-based NGO as donations for social welfare work, senior police officials here said.

The NGO, Sun Shine Health and Social Welfare Trust, is being probed for FCRA (Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act) violations as it allegedly diverted the ‘donations’ through the suspicious accounts that were opened in the names of illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, officials aware of the development said. The ATS suspected that the funds were used for anti-national activities and terror funding.

The ATS learnt about these accounts after arresting Assam’s Mohammed Abdul Awwal, 37, from New Delhi on Monday. Awwal, a student of Nadwa in Lucknow till 2017, opened these bank accounts in 2020 taking advantage of relaxed banking norms during the Covid period, a police official said.

“We have approached the Lucknow ATS court to seek the custody remand of Abdul Awwal. We’re likely to get it on Thursday after which he will be further questioned about the suspicious bank accounts and the entire money trail,” said an ATS official.

The official said the investigation, so far, had revealed that the accused, in connivance with NGO operator Abdul Gaffar, transferred the donated funds to these accounts in smaller amounts, and then withdrew them. He said the NGO had received fundings from several European countries in the name of social welfare.

The ATS was still looking for Gaffar, the NGO operator, he added.

He said Awwal, however, confessed during his interrogation that Gaffar roped him in and some others in April 2020 and asked them to open fake bank accounts in the names of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants. Donations worth around ₹20 crore worth was diverted in three years, the official observed.

“Their modus operandi to bring funds from abroad clearly suggested that a nexus was involved in using this money for anti-national activities by violating FCRA norms,” the senior ATS official added.

ATS had previously said that Abdul Awwal lived in Shram Vihar, Jamia Nagar, Okhla and New Delhi after completing class 12 under the Madrasa education system from Lucknow’s Nadwa in 2017.

Source: hindustantimes