The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted raids at former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Harsh Mander's residence and office in a case related to alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.
The CBI raid is followed by the raid by Directorate of Enforcement (ED) earlier in September 2021.
Mander hogged the limelight after he left IAS services dismayed by the communal violence happened in Godhra in 2002. Due his stand, he is considered close to Congress regime and was also a member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council during the erstwhile UPA government.
According to the ED, the raids were conducted at his residence, office and a children's home run by him in the city in connection with money laundering. Mander is the Director of the Delhi-based think tank Centre for Equity Studies.
The government has been watching the activities of Mander's NGO Aman Biradari for alleged FCRA violations. in March this year, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had sent recommendations for a CBI inquiry.
Who is Harsh Mander?
Harsh Mander is a 1980-batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre who later went to Chhatisgarh after the new state was formed.
In 2002, Mander, who visited Gujarat post Godhra riots, left IAS service dismayed by the unprecedented violence he witnessed and the alleged role that the bureaucracy and state government had played in allowing the communal clashes.
Later he turned into rights activist associated with the right to food, the right to information, bonded labour and the right of Adivasis. He had served as a district collector in six districts.
Harsh Mander further wrote a book based on Godhra riots – Between Memory and Forgetting: Massacre and the Modi Years in Gujarat – which created furore.
He is also the author of several books including Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India and The Right to Food Debates: Social Protection for Food Security in India.
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