UP forms 3-member SIT to probe funds received by madrasas from abroad

“During the probe, we will check the accounts of madrasas which are receiving funds from abroad. We will see how the money received through foreign funding is spent. Is the money used to run the madrasas or for any other activities,” said Additional Director General, ATS, Mohit Agarwal, who is heading the probe. The other two members of the SIT are the director of the Minority Welfare Department and the Superintendent of Police, Cyber Cell.

The government has not given any specific time period or financial year from which the money transactions will be checked. The agency is likely to be focusing more on madrasas active in districts located along the Indo-Nepal border including Siddharth Nagar, Bahraich, Shrawasti, Balrampur and Maharajganj, among others.

Sources said that during the probe the agency would check if such foreign funds are used for any illegal activities including terror, conversion, etc.

Earlier, in January this year, the government had ordered district magistrates in the districts bordering Nepal to conduct a probe into the source of funding of unrecognised madrasas that declared zakat (money from charity) and donations as their primary source of funds.

Cabinet Minister for Minority Welfare, Muslim Waqf and Haj Dharmpal Singh had then said that there are several madrasas in the areas along the Nepal border that have reported zakat and donations as their chief source of funds. But survey teams found that people living in these areas are poor and not able to give zakat and donations. Such madrasas have been identified and directions issued for rechecking their source of funding. These madrasas were not revealing the names of those who give them such donations, he had said, adding that it appeared that the funds could be from outside.

“Why will someone from outside fund them? We do not want our children to get misused. There are possibilities for it. Hence, information is being recollected and the source of their funding is being rechecked,” the minister had said.

Last year in August, the Yogi Adityanath-led government directed district magistrates to conduct a survey of unrecognised madrasas. During the two-month survey, 8,449 madrasas which were not recognised by the state madrasa education board were found to be functioning.