The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested four current and two former officials of the Union Home Ministry’s Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) division, along with eight others, for allegedly facilitating illegal clearances to non-government organisations (NGOs) under the Act, in lieu of bribes.
The arrested officials have been identified as Parmod Kumar Bhasin and Alok Ranjan, formerly with the FCRA, and its current officials, Raj Kumar, Saheed Khan, Mohammed Ghazanfar Ali and Tushar Kanti Roy. Among the private persons are an NGO representative, “hawala” operators, two directors of consultancy firm Shaurya Business Solutions and a Chartered Accountant.
On Tuesday, the agency had searched the premises of public servants, representatives of NGOs, middlemen and “hawala” operators in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Manipur. It seized about ₹3.21 crore in cash.
