CBI Registers Case Against Environics Trust For Funding Agitation Against Steel Plant In Odisha

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against Environics Trust, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), allegedly using foreign funds to finance agitations against a steel plant in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district.

The FIR has come nine months after the Union government suspended Foreign Contribution Registration Act (FCRA) licence of the NGO allegedly for violating rules.

According to the central agency, the NGO had allegedly transferred Rs 1,250 each to the bank accounts of 711 people on November 15, 2020, for distribution among Amphan cyclone-affected people in Odisha. The payment, however, was actually made to people to protest at Dhinkia village, where the JSW group had proposed setting up a steel plant, a probe conducted by an inspector-level officer last year said.

The agency also cited alleged association of the trust with Adivasi activist Deme Oram, who was arrested by Rourkela Police in 2022 on charges of rioting and unlawful assembly. There were several financial transactions between the trust and Oram in which Rs 30,000 were transferred to his account.  “It can be said that activity of ET are not genuine and are not in accordance with the object of the trust,” it said.