‘Money meant for Greenpeace India’

The Enforcement Directorate has searched the Bengaluru premises of a private company in connection with a probe into suspected use of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) funds for Greenpeace India Society operations in alleged violation of foreign exchange rules.

“The searches on the premises of Direct Dialogue Initiatives India Private Limited were conducted on Monday. The company was set up in October 2016 and it received about Rs. 29 crore in the form of FDI. It is suspected that the funds were diverted for use of the non-government organisation Greenpeace India’s activities,” a senior agency official said.

In a statement, the NGO said: “Greenpeace India unequivocally asserts that the organization is funded by hundreds of individual Indian citizens. Not a single rupee is foreign-funded. Greenpeace India works with its supporters' donations to run campaigns on the critical and urgent issue of climate change including the right to clean air, right to safe food and access to renewable energy.”

“Greenpeace India is grateful to all their Indian supporters, who have been a pillar of support for the organization for the past several years and continue to stand with Greenpeace India today,” it added.

A response from the company was awaited.

The ED official said the probe was being carried out under the Foreign Exchange Management Act and all the relevant financial transactions would be examined in the process.

In September 2015, the Central government had cancelled the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act licence of Greenpeace India allegedly in view of “prejudicially affecting the public interest and economic interest of the state,” which violated the conditions of grant of registration.

The government suspects that after the NGO’s licence for receipt of foreign donations was cancelled, funds were received via FDI route.