FCRA bribery case: Arrested MHA officials were under radar

By Saurabh Trivedi
New Delhi [India], May 19 (ANI): The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officials who were arrested in the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) in a bribery case, had been on the radar of intelligence agencies for the last two months.
"The accused were involved in the renewal of FCRA licences in lieu of bribes for the last year. But they came under the radar of security agencies after they received an anonymous complaint regarding the demand for bribes for the renewal of FCRA licences. They were under watch for the last two months and their activities were under surveillance," official sources told ANI.
Sources said that the accused who were posted in the FCRA division had complete access to the details of NGOs applying for it.
"After fetching the details of the NGOs that were desperate to get FCRA clearances for receiving foreign funds, the information regarding such NGOs passed to a consultancy firm operated by one of the accused. Then a person from consultancy will approach NGOs offering them 'solution' to get FCRA licence renewed at earliest," the official added.
Interestingly, the renewal files of NGOs 'put up' by the accused persons get clearance in one go while files processed from others were put on hold for various reasons.
"It is suspected that more officers posted under FCRA Division were involved in the nexus because such level of corruption can't be managed by lower rank staff. More names have surfaced and people have been asked to join the investigation," the official said.
On Friday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned an Under Secretary rank officer of MHA in FCRA bribery case. (ANI)