The Union home ministry on Thursday night cancelled the foreign funds licence of an NGO founded by climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, with “immediate effect”, sources said.
The development came a day after four persons were killed in police firing in Leh during a violent protest which the government said was “incited” by Wangchuk’s “provocative statements”.
The action of the home ministry follows the detection of discrepancies in the accounts of the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), including a funds transfer from Sweden which the ministry found was against “national interest”, said a ministry official.
The Wangchuk-led organisation had been granted the licence to accept foreign contributions for undertaking cultural and educational programmes, he said.
Besides SECMOL, Wangchuk had also founded the Himalayan Institute of Alternatives Ladakh (HIAL), which is facing a CBI inquiry related to alleged FCRA violations.
The preliminary inquiry was launched about two months ago, following a complaint from the Union home ministry, but the sources revealed the details of the case on Thursday.
“No FIR has been registered yet, but CBI sleuths have been camping in Ladakh for the past week, scrutinising financial records of HIAL and SECMOL, both associated with Wangchuk. They have found some irregularities related to bank accounts,” said an agency official.
The probe follows a complaint from the home ministry over alleged receipt of funds from overseas without obtaining clearances under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).
Speaking to PTI, Wangchuk on Thursday said a CBI team came with “an order” about 10 days ago, saying that they were acting on a complaint from the home ministry regarding alleged FCRA violations at HIAL.
“The order said we have not taken clearance under the FCRA to receive foreign funds. We don’t want to be dependent on foreign funds, but we export our knowledge and raise revenue. In three such instances, they thought it was a foreign contribution,” the activist said.
He said a CBI team visited HIAL and SECMOL last week, seeking details of foreign funds received by them between 2022 and 2024. The teams are camping in Ladakh and going through accounts and statements of the organisations, he said.
Wangchuk said the matters the complaint refers to were service agreements with taxes duly paid to the government. They pertained to India exporting knowledge to the United Nations, Swiss University and an Italian organisation, he said.
“Their (CBI officers) mandate was to check for accounts during 2022-24, but they started asking for accounts of 2021 and 2020. Then they went to our school asking for various documents outside their mandate period and a school outside the complaint’s purview,” Wangchuk alleged.
Wangchuk also pointed to a series of actions against him in recent months — a sedition case, a land lease dispute related to HIAL, income tax notices and a revived complaint about unpaid labourers from four years ago.
“The funny part is, Ladakh is one place where there is no tax. Yet I voluntarily pay
taxes, and I get summons. Then they resurrected a four-year-old complaint that labourers were not paid properly. It is guns blazing from all sides at us,” he alleged.