ED to seek CBI probe into US Christian mission for alleged illegal funding in Naxal-hit areas via foreign debit cards

The ED is seeking a CBI probe into a US-based Christian mission, The Timothy Initiative, for allegedly routing $\text{Rs } 95\text{ crore}$ in illegal foreign funds into Naxal-hit zones via overseas debit cards, bypassing formal banking channels

New Delhi: The ED is expected to write to the CBI seeking a probe under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) into a case of alleged illegal use of foreign debit cards to withdraw cash worth crores of rupees in certain Naxal violence-hit regions of India by a US-based global Christian mission, officials said on Friday.

The federal probe agency conducted searches in April in Bengaluru and Mysuru (Karnataka), Goalpara (Assam) and Dhamtari district in Chhattisgarh under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) against an entity named The Timothy Initiative (TTI).

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The Enforcement Directorate ED initiated the case after the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) shared a suspicious transaction report (STR) flagging a purported modus operandi that involved “receipt and utilisation of” foreign funds in India through overseas bank debit cards issued by the Truist Bank, US, thereby “bypassing” prescribed banking and regulatory channels.

The agency subsequently carried out raids and shared “evidence” gathered during this action with the police of Chhattisgarh and Karnataka who registered separate FIRs in May and June respectively. Officials said the ED also expects to file a criminal case under the anti-money laundering law.

The TTI web portal leads to a message saying “Country Blocked. Access to this page is forbidden”. Officials said the weblink became inaccessible in India and the cloud-based data maintained by the company in the US was remotely “deleted” from the back-end servers soon after the agency conducted the searches.

Investigators told PTI that the ED 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.

This information shall be shared with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for appropriate action under the applicable provisions of the law, including the FCRA, they said.

The TTI is not registered under the FCRA which enables legal foreign funding, according to the ED.

Efforts to reach the organisation were unsuccessful.

In a boost to the ED investigation, the Karnataka High Court on July 1 dismissed a petition seeking to quash a Bengaluru Police case registered against five people, linked to the TTI, under the stringent UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act).

In a statement issued on April 24, the ED said it intercepted a 43-year-old man named Micah Mark as part of this probe after he landed at the Bengaluru International Airport and found that he was carrying 24 foreign debit cards.

The high court, on Wednesday, dismissed the petition filed by Mark which sought to quash the police FIR. Justice M Nagaprasanna said this case did not warrant exercising 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 the statement of Mark in April, according to which he allegedly said that the TTI has distributed more than 1,000 such cards in India since 2019.

The ED statement had said that debit cards linked to Truist Bank, USA were brought into India and used for “repeated” cash withdrawals from ATMs across the country.

Further, it said, some “unusual” and “suspicious” cash withdrawals totalling Rs 6.5 crore were detected over the last few years using these cards in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected regions, including in 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 said that funds of about Rs 95 crore were channelled into India between November 2025 and April 2026.