New Delhi: Several activists, academics and advocates condemned the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at the office and residence of retired IAS officer and social activist Harsh Mander in connection with a money laundering probe.
Over 600 activists and intellectuals Thursday issued a joint statement saying Mander has been facing “continued harassment by multiple state agencies” and that the raids were a part of a “continuing chain of abuse of state institutions to threaten, intimidate and try to silence every critic of the present government.”
Among the 600 people who signed the statement include historian Romila Thapar, retired IPS officer Julio Ribeiro, economist Jean Dreze, advocate Indira Jaisingh, activist Aruna Roy and former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Ram Das.
On 16 September, the ED conducted searches at Mander’s residence and offices of his NGO named Centre for Equity Studies (CES), located in Adchini, Mehrauli and Vasant Kunj in south Delhi, just hours after he left for Germany with his wife for a six-month fellowship programme at the Robert Bosch Academy.
The ED’s case is based on an FIR registered by the Delhi Police in February this year under various provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and the Indian Penal Code on a complaint from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Registrar alleging violations by two children’s homes — Ummeed Aman Ghar and Khushi Rainbow Home, in south Delhi and their parent body — CES, of which Mander is a director.
Mander, however, has not been named as an accused in the FIR.
The raids, sources in the agency said, were in connection with a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to probe money flow and alleged irregularities in the two houses.
“The FIR was registered by the Delhi Police, and we are just probing the financial aspect of it. The investigation is being carried out based on a report that was submitted by NCPCR which talks about financial irregularities and that is what is being looked into,” a senior officer from the agency said.
‘Continuing chain of abuse of state institutions’
The joint statement called the allegations by NCPCR against Mander as “false and malicious”. The allegations, the statement said, were “definitively countered by the Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), a statutory body, which has filed a strong affidavit in the Delhi High Court, putting an end to the false allegations against CES”
The statement also said the CES too has been subjected to harassment by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), and the IT department.
“All these vindictive efforts combined, have showed neither diversion of money nor any violation of the law. The current raids by the ED and IT department are to be viewed in this context, as part of a continuing chain of abuse of state institutions to threaten, intimidate and try to silence every critic of the present government,” it said.
“We stand with Harsh Mander and with each person associated with the Centre for Equity Studies. The Constitution of India and the law of the land shall prevail, exposing these intimidatory tactics exactly for what they are – an abuse of state institutions to try and curtail all our rights,” the statement added.
Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh too came out in support of Mander.
“He is a person of unquestionable integrity & honesty, incapable of wrongdoing, almost too upright for the standards of today’s India. This raid is a travesty,” Tharoor tweeted.
I am shocked & dismayed to read of the ED raids on my friend and college batchmate @harsh_mander: https://t.co/uh6lFdGGDp
He is a person of unquestionable integrity &honesty, incapable of wrongdoing, almost too upright for the standards of today's India. This raid is a travesty.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 16, 2021
“One day after the International Day of Democracy, Modi Sarkar continues with its FDI obsession— Fear, Deception, Intimidation, by harassing a renowned activist and intellectual, Harsh Mander. And he gives lectures to others on inclusiveness and democracy!” Jairam Ramesh tweeted.
One day after the International Day of Democracy, Modi Sarkar continues with its FDI obsession—Fear, Deception, Intimidation, by harassing a renowned activist and intellectual, Harsh Mander. And He gives lectures to others on inclusiveness and democracy!https://t.co/HRpwNeYcP9
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 16, 2021
The case
In October 2020, the NCPCR carried out an inspection at children’s homes Mander was associated with, following which they filed a complaint with the Delhi Police and said the homes were “using children for illegal activities and cruelty”. Based on the complaint of the NCPCR Registrar, the Delhi Police then registered an FIR in the matter in February.
According to the police, the NCPCR also submitted a 24-page report based on their inspection, in which they claimed that four-five girls were made to sit-in during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019-20. It also said a boy staying in Ummeed Aman Ghar was told that “the government only works for Hindus and keeps fighting in Pakistan”.
The panel also accused the homes of stuffing children in tiny cabins and not maintaining social distance during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Soon after the registration of the FIR, Mander released a statement in which he said that the NCPCR raided two children’s homes in Delhi to find out if any of the residents had participated in the protests against the CAA.
“I am no longer formally associated with these homes…I visit them [the children] when I can, to assure myself about their welfare, speak to them about the world and leading a good life, and sing songs together. The NCPCR team in its ‘raids’ on the two homes had four central focuses. The most important was whether the children participated in the anti-CAA protests. The second focus was about my association with the homes,” he had said in the statement.
He had also said that the other focuses of the raid were to find out if there was any foreign funding and if any Rohingya children were living at the homes.
(Edited by Neha Mahajan)
Also read: Harsh Mander — ‘bleeding-heart liberal’ who’s fighting Modi govt with Gandhi’s ‘radical love’