(Belga) India has fined Amnesty International’s local branch nearly $6.5 million for financial crimes, following an investigation into what it deemed a “witch hunt” by human rights organisations.

The Directorate of Enforcement, the agency that investigates financial crimes in the country, said on Friday that Amnesty violated India’s funding regulations by using foreign donations to expand its local activities. Former local branch manager Aakar Patel also had to pay an additional $1.3 million in fines. Amnesty International did not comment after the announcement of the fine. The organization ended its operations in India in 2020 after its bank accounts were frozen by the government. At the time, he felt he was the victim of “the Indian government’s ongoing witch hunt against human rights groups for unfounded reasons”. Amnesty International and other NGOs consider themselves victims of abuse by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government for criticizing the way India’s minorities are treated and condemning abuses committed in conflict zones, particularly in Kashmir. Amnesty has been charged with sedition after holding a conference in 2016 on human rights abuses in Kashmir. The charges were later dropped. His office in Bangalore (south) was then raided in 2018 by the Directorate of Enforcement. Earlier this year, Patel was unable to leave the country due to legal action and was refused a flight to the United States at Bangalore airport by members of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), an Indian investigative agency. (Belgium)