The Karnataka High Court on Monday stayed a money laundering case against the now-defunct human rights organisation Amnesty International India and its former executive director Aakar Patel, reported Bar and Bench.

Justice Hemant Chandangoudar noted that another bench of the court had extended similar interim relief to former Amnesty International India chief executive officer, G Ananthapadmanabhan.

The case dates back to 2022, when the Enforcement Directorate accused the organisation of laundering Rs 51.72 crore. The agency had initiated the case based on a complaint by the Central Bureau of Investigation filed in 2019.

On Monday, the High Court issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate on the petition filed by the organisation, Patel and Ananthapadmanabhan, seeking that the case against them be quashed, Hindustan Times reported.

The trial in the 2022 case is pending before a Bengaluru court.

The central agency has alleged that the Amnesty International-United Kingdom was remitting funds from abroad through its Indian entities – by taking the foreign direct investment route – to evade the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.

Remitting involves sending money in payment or as gifts.

These funds were allegedly received to expand the organisation’s activities in India despite the home ministry denying permission to the body and the Amnesty India Foundation Trust to register under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.

The Enforcement Directorate claimed that Amnesty International India has been involved in activities that are irrelevant to their declared commercial businesses. The organisation’s working model is used to route foreign funds in the guise of business activities, it added.

CBI case against Amnesty India

The Central Bureau of Investigation has claimed that the Amnesty International India Foundation Trust was permitted in 2011-’12 to receive foreign contributions from the Amnesty International-United Kingdom. However, the permission was cancelled following adverse inputs from the security agencies, it said.

The agency alleged that the Indians for Amnesty International Trust and Amnesty International India Private Limited were formed in 2012-’13 and 2013-’14 to “escape the FCRA [Foreign Contribution Regulation Act] route”.

In September 2020, the human rights organisation had said it was forced to shut its operations as the Indian government had frozen its bank accounts. The group had said its “lawful fundraising model” was being portrayed as money laundering because Amnesty India had challenged the “government’s grave inactions and excesses”.

The Centre had described the allegations as unfortunate, exaggerated and “far from the truth”. Amnesty’s “glossy statements” about humanitarian work and speaking truth to power were nothing but a “ploy to divert attention” from their activities, which were in “clear contravention” of Indian laws, the government had said.