CBI probes US Christian mission Timothy over alleged ₹92.55 crore FCRA violations

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against US-based Christian mission The Timothy Initiative (TTI) and several of its functionaries for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), following allegations that foreign debit cards were used to withdraw crores of rupees in cash from ATMs across India, including Naxal violence-hit regions, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday.The CBI FIR alleges ₹92.55 crore was withdrawn using foreign debit cards between November 2025 and April 2026, with another ₹44 crore withdrawn across states.The Enforcement Directorate (ED) wrote to the CBI in July seeking a probe into the matter.In its first information report (FIR), filed on August 27, the CBI named several TTI functionaries, including Jonathan S Rajan (overall operations head), Micah Mark (key financial operative, who was caught at Kempegowda airport on April 24 while carrying 24 debit cards), Ajit Verghese Mathai (finance head), three field functionaries — Bablu Kurmi, Supreme Joy and Varghese Chako — unknown persons, and the organisation itself as accused. They were charged with violating provisions pertaining to the receipt and use of foreign funds under the FCRA, criminal conspiracy under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Information Technology Act.The CBI has alleged in the FIR, seen by HT, that the suspects, as part of a conspiracy, “coordinated and withdrew foreign funds through various ATMs across India using foreign debit cards, Issued by Truist Bank of USA”.Funds worth approximately ₹92.55 crore (USD 99,95,240), in contravention of the legal provisions of the FCRA, were withdrawn from November 2025 to April 2026, it added.“Further, funds amounting to approx Rs. 44 crore were withdrawn withdrawn using foreign debit cards across multiple states i.e. Kamataka, Chhattisgarh, Assam etc, from January 2024 to March 2026,” the CBI alleged.TTI is not registered in India under the FCRA, a foreign funding law that allows organisations to receive and utilise funds from abroad. Its website displays 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 searches.The ED raided the organisation and its office-bearers in April under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), during which it found the alleged irregularities. The agency had alleged that the foreign funds were moved to exert Naxal influence.The Karnataka high court, while rejecting a plea by TTI office-bearers, ruled that “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”.According to the CBI FIR, filed on the ED’s reference, Mark had made multiple foreign trips and returned with foreign debit cards. “Mark is a key person in the financial operations of TTI In India. Over 1,000 such debit cards have been distributed in India over the past few years,” it adds.After the ED raids in April this year, the TTI Global portal (www,ttlglobal.org) became inaccessible in India. “Further, the data, which is maintained on cloud, as well as in the seized laptop has been deleted from the back-end through remote access of the servers and laptop, which are maintained by TTI, USA”.Rajan and Mathai, the CBI claims, ensured that funds withdrawn from ATMs were used for TTI’s activities across India, which included “training, preaching and brainwashing of poor people leading to left wing extremism, among others”.“He (Rajan) oversees the training organized by TTI, the selection of persons who conduct such training, and the identification of venues. As operations Head, he sends fund requirements to the finance team, which in turn arranges illegal funding from TTI, USA through the foreign debit cards in question. Chacko, Joy and Kurmi are field level functionaries, who have withdrawn funds in cash using the foreign debit cards at multiple ATMs and used the same for advancing the purposes of TTI,” the FIR said.