Bengaluru: Bengaluru police have registered an FIR against a US-based NGO and six people following an ED complaint that they diverted foreign funds through a web of overseas debit cards, with certain withdrawals allegedly made in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected areas of the country.
The FIR, lodged at Kothanur Police station on June 11, follows a complaint filed by ED Assistant Director Sunil Kumar Sinhmar. It names six people — Jonathan S. Rajan, Micah Mark, Ajit Verghese Mathai, Varghese Chacko, Bablu Kurmi and Supreme Joy — and the US organisation The Timothy Initiative (TTI) as accused. The case invokes provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), PTI reported.
Preliminary ED allegations say searches conducted on April 18 and 19 under the Income Tax Act and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) uncovered a pattern in which funds of foreign origin were accessed and spent in India using debit cards issued by a US bank. The agency claims roughly Rs 92.55 crore (about USD 9,995,240) was drawn and used unlawfully between November 2025 and April 2026, in breach of FEMA and the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).
The FIR recounts that Micah Mark was stopped at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport on April 18 and that officers found 24 foreign debit cards in his possession. ED investigators allege the network had distributed over 1,000 similar cards across the country. Many of those cards reportedly carried the shared name “Santosh Kumar” and were labeled with regional tags such as “NE-1”, “NE-2” and “Southern Region-1”, a pattern the agency says suggests an organised scheme.
According to the complaint, ED detected suspicious cash withdrawals in LWE-affected pockets of Chhattisgarh. The FIR estimates that around Rs 6.34 crore was disbursed in places including Dhamtari and Bastar over recent years. The ED says the large, clustered withdrawals show they were coordinated and that money was sent to Naxalite-influenced areas — actions the agency calls illegal under the UAPA and harmful to India’s security and economy.
The enforcement agency also accuses individuals of attempting to erase digital traces. The FIR references an alleged admission by Micah Mark that he deleted his account from a backend system; the complaint appends a report and video recording to substantiate that claim, the documents state.
The ED claims while Ajit Verghese Mathai handled TTI’s finances in India, Jonathan S. Rajan ran its operations. It alleges money withdrawn with the foreign cards funded TTI projects across several states.
The FIR charges include criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery (including forged electronic records), and promoting unlawful activities, and it accuses the parties of conspiring to commit terrorist acts under the UAPA. These are allegations that will be investigated and decided by the courts.
Investigators plan to follow transaction trails, study how the cards were distributed, check backend account records, and track cash movements into the named districts. They may also work with foreign banks to trace the cards and funds.
TTI and the individuals named were not immediately available for comment.
