MHA official sent to jail till June 6 for issuing FCRA notices 'arbitrarily'
New Delhi: A special court on Tuesday sent an MHA official to jail till June 6 for allegedly issuing FCRA notices arbitrarily to several NGOs for financial gains after CBI submitted that his further custodial interrogation was not required in the case.
Read: Court extends MHA official Joshi's CBI custody
Special CBI Judge Vinod Kumar sent accused Anand Joshi, under secretary in the Home Ministry, to 14-day judicial remand after he was produced before the court on expiry of his CBI custody.
In its application before the court, the CBI submitted that the accused be sent to jail as he was no more required for further questioning in the case. The court also allowed the counsel for the accused to get a copy of the FIR in the case.
According to sources, the CBI had summoned several government officials and other persons in connection with the probe.
Earlier, the special court had extended the CBI custody of Joshi after the agency mentioned that seven new files have been recovered during the probe. Joshi, who was arrested from west Delhi on May 15, was under CBI custody which ended on Tuesday.
CBI had earlier claimed that the files relating to several NGOs had gone missing from Home Ministry and they were recovered from his house although he was not supposed to take them away.
It had alleged that Joshi had been issuing notices dishonestly to a large number of NGOs/societies registered under the FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) 2010, which have been receiving significant amount of foreign contributions, in an arbitrary manner.
It has 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.
Joshi was arrested on May 15 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 on Sabrang Trust of activist Teesta Setalvad.
Joshi, who had disappeared from his home in Indirapuram in Ghaziabad, was picked up from Tilak Nagar area of West Delhi and taken to the CBI headquarters for questioning. Subsequently, he was arrested by the agency.
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 had alleged that Joshi laundered ill-gotten earnings in various immovable assets as well as certain private firms which were floated by him and that 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 without authorisation.
The agency claimed that during the search conducted at Joshi's house, one file pertaining to FCRA about private NGO Care India Solutions for Sustainable Development has been 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.
