Twitter
Advertisement

Sabrang Trust did not violate foreign funding norms, clarifies Teesta Setalvad

The development came after Gujarat government wrote to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking a probe into the accounts of her NGO Sabrang Trust, for allegedly "misusing" foreign funds to create "communal disharmony" here.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Social activist Teesta Setalvad on Wednesday denied violations of Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) provisions by her NGOs, after Gujarat government demanded the Union Home Ministry to probe the functioning of her organisations.

She, in a statement, also said that her NGOs had co-operated with a Union Home Ministry team which had visited her offices. "Trustees and office bearers of Sabrang Trust as well as Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) do not see themselves as above the law. They believe in the law of the land and expect others to do so as well. We believe that neither Sabrang Trust nor CJP violated FCRA provisions or for that matter any law of the land," Setalvad said in the statement issued on Wednesday. 

The development came after Gujarat government wrote to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking a probe into the accounts of her NGO Sabrang Trust, for allegedly "misusing" foreign funds to create "communal disharmony" here.

Gujarat's Minister of State (MoS) for Home Rajnikant Patel had said the state government had written a letter to the Union Home Minister to probe the role of Teesta Setalwad's Sabrang Trust after learning that funds sent to her NGO were misused. "We learnt that funds which Sabrang Trust received, especially from the (US-based) Ford Foundation, were actually used for disturbing communal harmony here and carrying out anti-national propaganda against India in foreign countries," Patel had said.

"According to information given by the Ford Foundation (to state police), we came to know that she had used the funds to carry out a campaign against the Gujarat government and also against the country," Patel said.
Patel also said that the US-based funding group Ford Foundation had donated more than five lakh US dollars to Setalvad's NGO and the Gujarat government had requested the Union government to probe the use of that money. 

Setalvad, in her statement, said that Sabrang Trust had co-operated with a Union Home Ministry team which had visited its offices. "Following the letter from Gujarat government to Union Ministry of Home Affairs, a team of four senior officers from the FCRA department's monitoring unit in New Delhi visited registered offices of Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) to inspect accounts as well as records of both the trusts," Setalvad said.

The inspection team was led by a Deputy Secretary of the Government of India's Ministry of Home Affairs, who was accompanied by three Assistant Directors from the FCRA department's monitoring unit. "Executive functionaries of CJP and Sabrang Trust, Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, extended full co-operation to the inspection team which spent three full days from April 6 to April 8 scrutinising original accounts and other CJP records," the statement said.

"From April 9 to April 11, they examined original accounts and other records of Sabrang Trust. Several hundred photocopies of original accounts and other records were provided as requested by the inspection team. Soft copies of some other accounts related details were also provided on DVD," Setalvad said in the statement.

The inspection team appreciated these courtesies and the complete co-operation extended to them by executives and the staff of the Sabrang Trust and CJP. The Gujarat government and Setalvad have been engaged in a legal battle after the activist filed several cases against Gujarat government functionaries along with the then chief minister Narendra Modi in connection with the 2002 riots.

The Gujarat state police has also been probing an alleged fund embezzlement case to the tune of Rs 1.51 crore against Setalvad, based on a complaint by survivors of Gulberg Society. Setalvad said that her organisation had provided numerous documents and also co-operated with the probe agency (the city crime branch) on the alleged fund embezzlement case.

"In connection with the ongoing investigation by Ahmedabad police crime branch into the alleged embezzlement of funds by Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, Sabrang Trust and CJP have already provided over 20,354 documents (hard and soft copies) to the investigation officer," Setalvad said in her statement.

Further, both Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand even appeared for personal interrogation on December 15 and 16, 2014 and January 5 and January 6, 2015, it added. The issue of fund embezzlement surfaced after 12 Gulberg Society residents headed by one Firoz Khan Pathan alleged that money collected in their name to set up a museum at the Society was usurped by Setalvad and was never distributed to them even after they dropped the idea of setting up the museum.

Incidentally, Teesta Setalvad's anticipatory bail plea is pending before the larger bench of the Supreme Court in the case. Earlier, Gujarat High Court had rejected her pre-arrest bail plea. On 28 February, 2002, after the Godhra Sabarmati train carnage, 69 people including former MP Ehsan Jafri were killed by an unruly mob at Gulberg Society here during the riots. 

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement