A Delhi court on Monday sent an under secretary in the Union home ministry in connection with a case against him of allegedly dishonestly issuing Foreign Contribution Regulation Act notices to several NGOs for financial gains to five-day Central Bureau of Investigation custody.
Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar allowed the probe agency to quiz Anand Joshi, who was arrested on Sunday from west Delhi, in its custody till May 20.
Seeking Joshi’s custody, CBI argued that files relating to several NGOs had gone missing from the home ministry and they were recovered from his house and he was not supposed to take them away.
It contended that he was neither cooperating in the probe nor disclosing relevant facts and his custodial interrogation was required to find out how those files came to his house.
CBI alleged in court that Joshi had been issuing notices dishonestly to a large number of NGOs/ societies registered under the FCRA 2010, which have been receiving significant amount of foreign contributions, in an arbitrary manner.
It said some of these organisations are Care India, Snehalya Charitable Trust, Indian HIV/AIDS Alliance and All India Primary Teachers Federation and alleged that the representatives of some of these organisations were called and Joshi demanded and obtained illegal gratification.
It further said when the CBI team had gone to his house, he was not present there and even his mobile phone was switched off from May 11 to May 15 and he had left his house leaving a false letter behind.
The custody plea, however, was opposed by Joshi’s counsel who said his mobile was not switched off and he had lost his phone in Ujjain and in his 24 years long career he was not even issued an office memo.
Joshi was arrested on Sunday after he allegedly gave unconvincing answers to the questions posed by a team of Special Crime division of the CBI, including those related to disappearance of files related to Sabrang Trust of activist Teesta Setalvad.
Joshi, who had disappeared on the morning of May 11 from his home in Indirapuram in Ghaziabad, was on Sunday picked up from Tilak Nagar area of West Delhi and taken to the CBI headquarters for questioning.
The case was slapped against Joshi and some other unnamed persons for allegedly indulging in corrupt practices and arbitrarily issuing notices to several NGOs, registered under FCRA, which were receiving foreign contributions, including activist Teesta Setalvad’s Sabrang Trust.
Joshi has rejected the charge and instead accused his seniors of pressuring him to give a clean chit to NGOs. In a note which he had left before leaving home, Joshi claimed he had been subjected to “mental harassment” in recent months.
CBI alleged in the court that Joshi laundered ill-gotten earnings in various immovable assets as well as certain private companies which were floated by him and his wife was one of the directors in them.
It alleged even after his transfer from FCRA division, he continued to indulge in corrupt activities on the basis of documents which were in his possession unauthorisedly.
The agency claimed that during the search conducted at Joshi’s house, one file pertaining to FCRA which pertains to private NGO Care India Solutions for Sustainable Development has been recovered and seized and his interrogation was needed to know as to how the official files made way in his house and what was his intention in bringing them.
The matter came to light after files pertaining to alleged FCRA violations by two NGOs run by Setalvad went missing from the home ministry. The files were traced and restored to the FCRA division but CBI was asked to investigate the matter.
It was noticed that the files had gone missing when the home ministry took a decision to cancel FCRA registration of one of Setalvad’s NGOs, Sabrang Trust, sources had said.
Sabrang Trust’s licence was suspended on September 9, 2015 by MHA for alleged multiple violations of FCRA rules, including misuse of funds for personal benefit of trustees.
When home ministry officials found that the files had gone missing, they conducted an inquiry and identified Joshi as the official who had taken away the files. He was summoned and the files were restored.
An under secretary is not allowed to take away files, only officials of the rank of joint secretary and above are allowed to take the files home. It is a serious violation, the CBI had said.
Image: Home Ministry Under Secretary Anand Joshi being produced in Patiala House Court in New Delhi on Monday by the the CBI in connection with a corruption case. Photograph: Atul Yadav/PTI
