Authorities in India have fined the country’s branch of Amnesty International nearly $6.5 million for financial wrongdoing, following an investigation that the organization denounced as a “witch hunt.”
India’s financial crimes agency said on Friday that Amnesty International violated India’s funding laws by using donations from abroad for its local operations.
In a statement, the agency said the human rights group must pay a $6.5 million fine and its former chief Aakar Patel an additional $1.3 million.
Amnesty International suspended its operations in India in 2020 after the country’s authorities froze its bank accounts. At the time, the non-governmental organization had denounced “the Indian government’s endless witch-hunt against human rights organizations using baseless pretexts”.
Amnesty International and other NGOs believe they are being harassed by the nationalist, Hindu government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for criticizing its treatment of minorities and for reporting abuses in war-torn areas, particularly Kashmir.
In 2016, Amnesty International was accused of stalling after it organized a conference on human rights violations in Kashmir. The charges were subsequently dropped.
Then, in 2018, the agency investigating financial crimes had raided the NGO’s offices in Bangalore.
Earlier this year Patel was prevented by Indian authorities from boarding a flight to the US because of a pending court case against him.
Source: Capital
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