Amnesty International India

Amnesty International India was a country unit of the Amnesty International network, and was part of a global movement promoting and defending human rights and dignity. In September 2020, Amnesty halted its operations in the country after all bank accounts of the organization were frozen. The organization called this as 'witch hunting' while the government of India said the organisation's FCRA had been declined one after other for 20 years by different governments in power as per the law
History.
An Amnesty International office was first set up in India in Bihar in 1966. Since then, the organization has worked on cases related torture, prisoners of conscience, abusive laws, women's rights, corporate accountability and other human rights violations.
In 2020, Amnesty says it was forced to halt its Indian operations due to "reprisals" from the government. Amnesty claimed its bank accounts were frozen and it was forced to lay off staff, and suspend all its campaign and research work. The Ministry of Home Affairs claims that Amnesty violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) as "a significant amount of foreign money was also remitted to Amnesty (India) without MHA’s approval under FCRA" and "owing to these illegal practices of Amnesty, the previous government had also rejected the repeated applications of Amnesty to receive funds from overseas. This had led Amnesty to suspend its India operations once during that period as well."
Campaigns.
Amnesty International India collaborates with Railway Protection Force, Western Railways in Mumbai to ensure female passengers’ right to safety. It also ran a campaign to reduce the number of under-trials in jails in India. Some of Amnesty India's campaigns include seeking justice for the victims in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as well as opposing the use of the death penalty in India.
Controversies.
Following an event held in Bengaluru on 13 August 2016 on human rights violations, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad filed a first information report (FIR) against Amnesty India for being anti-national. Amnesty India denied that the organization or its staff had been involved in any anti-national activities.
On 15 November 2019 the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the offices of Amnesty International India in Bengaluru and New Delhi during an investigation into an alleged breach of foreign funding laws. In a statement issued by CBI, they said "It was alleged that the provision of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010 and Indian Penal Code were contravened"..
On 16th February 2021, the Enforcement Directorate attached properties worth ₹17.66 crore of the organisation in connection with an alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).