Multiple teams of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have been raiding offices and residential premises linked to social activist Harsh Mander in Delhi on Friday morning in connection with alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.
Last year, the CBI lodged an FIR after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) asked the agency to initiate an inquiry against Mander and Aman Biradari, an NGO established by him. “We are conducting searches at his residence and at the office premises of the Centre for Equity Studies (CES),” a source said.
Supreme Court lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan posted on X, formerly Twitter, “CBI is raiding Harsh Mander’s house and office. He has been one of the most gentle, humane & generous activists who has worked tirelessly for the weak & poor. He is being targeted only because he has been critical of this govt. All agencies are being blatantly used to target critics.”
In 2021, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at offices and residential premises associated with Mander in connection with a case of alleged money laundering. The ED’s case is based on another case registered by Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against the CES. Mander is a director of CES.
The Delhi Police had registered two cases against CES — one under the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act and another over alleged financial irregularities — following a raid conducted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in 2020 at two children’s homes run by the centre. The NCPCR had alleged various irregularities, including financial, in the running of the two homes at the time.
In 2021, in response to a petition in the Delhi High Court by CES, the NCPCR had said it had recommended action against the two children’s homes linked to Mander only after finding various violations and discrepancies on the part of the management. Among the alleged violations, the NCPCR mentioned that it had been informed by the children that they were taken to protest sites, including Jantar Mantar.
“During the inspection, prima facie, many violations of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and its Model Rules, 2016, and various other irregularities came to the notice of NCPCR, including financial irregularities as the institution was reluctant in disclosing their sources of funding and other relevant document to the inspection team,” NCPCR had said in the reply.
A former IAS officer, Harsh Mander had quit civil services in the wake of Gujarat violence and started the ‘Karwan-e-Mohabbat’ campaign in solidarity with the victims of communal violence.
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