India’s ED Goes After Amnesty India, Aakar Patel

NEW DELHI, (IANS) – The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued show-cause notice to Amnesty India International and its CEO Aakar Patel for contravention of the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act and imposed penalties to the tune of Rs 51.72 crore and Rs 10 crore on the two, respectively.

The ED had initiated an investigation under FEMA saying it had information that Amnesty International, UK, had been remitting a huge amount of foreign contributions through its Indian entities to expand its NGO activities in India.

The show cause notice issued by the ED has charged that during the period November 2013 and June 2018, remittance which was received by AIIPL and claimed as receipt for business/management consultancy and public relation services for export of services to foreign beneficiary, was nothing but the amount borrowed from overseas remitter, thereby violating the FEMA provisions.