NEW DELHI: The Income Tax department on Wednesday conducted searches on the premises of a leading public policy think tank, an international NGO, and a trust that funds prominent media platforms.
A team of around a dozen IT officials was in the office of Delhi-based independent think tank Centre for Policy Research till late evening.
Extensive searches were also conducted at the Delhi offices of international non-government organisation Oxfam, and the Bengaluru-based Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF) that funds leading news portals such as The Wire, The Print, The Caravan, Swarajya, etc.
Employees of these organisations were not allowed to leave and asked to keep phones switched off during the surprise raids.
There has been no statement from the IT department about the reasons for these raids, but sources said it is looking at the balance sheets of these organisations to check the receipt of funds using permissions under the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA).
Established in 1973, the CPR has been one of the most respected think tanks of India, which had leading public intellectual Pratap Bhanu Mehta as its previous head, and is currently headed by educationist and former Principal of Lady Shri Ram College Meenakshi Gopinath.
According to its website, the mission of CPR is “asking the relevant questions and building evidence on key policy challenges in India”.
The IPSMF, functioning as a public charitable trust since 2015, says on its website that the “struggle to survive and sustain has made journalism susceptible to pressures from various quarters – from advertisers and corporates, from owners, from politicians, from government and even from society itself. The need to support independent and public-spirited journalism has arisen in this context. If the market does not support a free media, then non-profit funding has to be made available to create an ecosystem of independent media entities.”
Among the donors of the IPSMF are Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives Pvt Ltd, Pirojsha Godrej Foundation, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, Rohinton and Anu Aga Family Discretionary No 2 Trust, RDA Holdings Pvt Ltd, Manipal Education and Medical Group India Pvt Ltd, Piramal Enterprises Ltd, etc.
The home page of Oxfam India highlights the Assam floods and lists its actions to provide relief. Oxfam’s website says it is “a movement of people and grassroots organisations working together to stop the rising inequality.”
Taxman searches unrecognised parties
The I-T department also conducted raids in over 110 locations across the country in cases related to alleged tax evasion, FCRA violation and illicit funding of registered unrecognised political parties.