The human rights organization Amnesty International has stopped its advocacy in India, claiming the government seized its bank accounts as a form of reprisal for disclosing alleged rights violations in the country.
In a Tuesday statement, the non-profit watchdog said it has been forced to lay off personnel and halt research work and campaign in the region, accusing the government of carrying out a "witch-hunt" against rights groups, Reuters reported.
Opposition groups within civil society movements including the media have long denounced the government's intimidation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's regime, an accusation it said was "exaggerated and far from the truth."
Amnesty International alleges that Modi's government froze its accounts on Sept. 10 after two years of parrying assertions of financial misdeeds, which the administration said were unfounded. In rebuttal, the Indian government claimed that Amnesty resorted to illicit practices involving the channeling of huge amounts of funds from Amnesty UK to four entities in India.
According to Amnesty Acting Secretary-General Julie Verhaar, these actions are "egregious and shameful" and "forces us to halt the critical human rights efforts of Amnesty International India," CNN quoted Verhaar as saying in a statement.
In a report made public in August, Amnesty said police officers in New Delhi committed human rights abuses during religious demonstrations involving Muslims and Hindus in February this year. Denying the allegations, Delhi authorities told media that Amnesty's claims were "biased and malicious," BBC reported.
India's interior ministry said Amnesty's accusations that it was being singled out for defending its human rights advocacy were a scheme to deflect the spotlight on its alleged disobedience of the country's financial policies.
Amnesty India Executive Director Avinash Kumar said the government's clampdown on the group was the result of its demands for broader transparency, stressing that the latest oppression is tantamount to freezing dissent.
The current regime has previously disclosed that Amnesty was being probed over questions that it was infringing on international funding laws.
