Sonam Wangchuk’s NGO loses FCRA licence as Home Ministry finds fault in handling Rs 9.81 lakh

New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday cancelled the licence of Sonam Wangchuk-founded ‘Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh’ (SECMOL) to collect foreign donations with “immediate effect”, claiming violation of laws in handling Rs 9.81 lakh in 2021-22.

The action came a day after the MHA put the blame on Wangchuk, who was on a hunger strike demanding statehood for Ladakh and its Constitutional protection, for violence in the union territory, claiming that he was misleading people through “provocative mention” of Arab Spring-style protest and “references to Gen Z protests in Nepal”.

SECMOL was slapped a show cause notice on August 20 seeking its explanation on five counts, which included Wangchuk depositing money in its FCRA account and three people depositing money in the account dealing with foreign donations, violating provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

One of the charges for cancellation of FCRA licence was that Wangchuk had deposited Rs 3.5 lakh into the designated account in violation of rules.

In its reply on September 19, SECMOL said that it was related to sale proceeds of an old bus procured in July 2015 using foreign funds and as it was an asset accrued using foreign donations, it needed to be deposited in the FCRA account.

However, the MHA dismissed the explanation as “not tenable” and said the accounts submitted for 2021-22 had shown this amount as foreign donation from Wangchuk and it appeared that the amount was received in cash.

To MHA's contention that local funds of Rs 54,600 were deposited in FCRA account, SECMOL had claimed that Rs 18,200 each was “mistakenly” deposited by three individuals towards their food and accommodation in the FCRA account instead of local account.

“Our website clearly specifies that Indian volunteers should transfer contributions to the local account and foreign volunteers to the FCRA account. Despite these instructions, the volunteers inadvertently sent to the wrong account,” it said, an explanation which the MHA refused to buy saying the NGO has admitted to crediting local funds to FCRA account.

The MHA also found fault with SECMOL receiving Rs 4.93 lakh from a Swedish organisation for a project for creating awareness among youth on issues such as “migration, climate change, global warming, food security and sovereignty and organic farming” through different workshops and training programmes.

It said the NGO admitted that the funds were for “study on sovereignty of the country, including some other topics and the fund had also been spent in line with the objectives of the foreign donors”, which is “against the national interest of the country”.

Returning Rs 19,600 to one Megha Sanghvi of IIM-Indore, which was received for food and accommodation for volunteering with the NGO for a month was also seen as a violation by the MHA. SECMOL said the money was returned as the volunteer work was called off due to Covid-19 lockdown in June 2021.

The MHA said refunding the donor was “likely to use the foreign contribution for personal gain or divert it for undesirable purpose”.

Not crediting Rs 79,200 in FCRA account was also a violation pointed out by the MHA. SECMOL said that the amount was directly deducted from staff salaries and fellows' stipends and no separate transaction took place.