NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is expected to write to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking an investigation under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) into the alleged use of foreign debit cards to withdraw cash worth crores of rupees in Naxal violence-hit areas by a US-based Christian mission, officials said on Friday.
The central probe agency had carried out searches in April in Bengaluru and Mysuru in Karnataka, Goalpara in Assam, and Dhamtari district in Chhattisgarh under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) as part of its investigation into an organisation called The Timothy Initiative (TTI).
The ED launched the investigation after the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) shared a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) alleging a modus operandi involving the "receipt and utilisation of" foreign funds in India through overseas bank debit cards issued by Truist Bank in the United States, thereby "bypassing" prescribed banking and regulatory channels.
The agency later conducted searches and shared the "evidence" collected with the police in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, which registered separate FIRs in May and June, respectively.
Officials said the ED is also expected to register a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The TTI website currently displays a message stating: "Country Blocked. Access to this page is forbidden".
Officials said the website became inaccessible in India and that cloud-based data maintained by the organisation in the United States was remotely "deleted" from back-end servers shortly after the searches.
Investigators told PTI that the ED had also gathered documents and financial transaction records which allegedly indicate a "systematic" routing of foreign funds into Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected areas, destruction of digital evidence, and the involvement of a foreign organisation operating through a network of shell entities.
They said this information would be shared with the CBI for appropriate action under applicable laws, including the FCRA.
According to the ED, TTI is not registered under the FCRA, which is required to legally receive foreign contributions in India.
Efforts to contact the organisation were unsuccessful.
In a development that could bolster the ED's investigation, the Karnataka High Court on July 1 dismissed a petition seeking to quash a Bengaluru police case registered against five people linked to TTI under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
In a statement issued on April 24, the ED said it intercepted a 43-year-old man, Micah Mark, after he arrived at Bengaluru International Airport as part of the investigation and found he was carrying 24 foreign debit cards.
The High Court on Wednesday dismissed Mark's petition seeking to quash the police FIR.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna said the case did not warrant the exercise of the court's inherent jurisdiction to nip the crime in the bud.
Noting that the case concerns national security, the judge observed, "One of the gravest threats to national security in the present times is the clandestine funding of extremism. Funding, therefore, becomes the oxygen that enables extremist movements to survive and proliferate."
The danger of extremist financing lies not merely in the money transferred but in the consequences it unleashes, the judge said.
ED officials said they recorded Mark's statement in April, in which he allegedly said that TTI had distributed more than 1,000 such cards in India since 2019.
The ED had earlier said that debit cards linked to Truist Bank in the United States were brought into India and used for "repeated" cash withdrawals from ATMs across the country.
It said "unusual" and "suspicious" cash withdrawals totalling Rs 6.5 crore had been detected over the past few years using these cards in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected areas, including Dhamtari district and the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.
"Such an emergence of a parallel cash-based economy in Naxalite-affected areas poses a serious threat to security and financial integrity of India and can facilitate the movement of illicit funds for unlawful activities," it said.
The agency also alleged that about Rs 95 crore was channelled into India between November 2025 and April 2026.
(With inputs from PTI)