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

The CBI has booked US-based Christian mission The Timothy Initiative and its functionaries over alleged FCRA violations and crores withdrawn using foreign debit cards.

Published on: Sep 16, 2026, 18:44:12 IST

By Neeraj Chauhan, New Delhi

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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The CBI FIR alleges ₹92.55 crore was withdrawn using foreign debit cards between November 2025 and April 2026, with another ₹44 crore withdrawn across states.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Funds worth approximately ₹92.55 crore (USD 99,95,240), in contravention of the legal provisions of the FCRA, were withdrawn from November 2025 to April 2026, it added.

“Further, funds amounting to approx Rs. 44 crore were withdrawn withdrawn using foreign debit cards across multiple states i.e. Kamataka, Chhattisgarh, Assam etc, from January 2024 to March 2026,” the CBI alleged.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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Chauhan
Neeraj Chauhan is a senior journalist with Hindustan Times and an investigative reporter specialising in national security, terrorism, organised crime, narcotics, corruption, financial crime and complex investigations. With over 21 years of experience across Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express and The Pioneer, he has built deep expertise in India’s internal security and law-enforcement landscape. Neeraj has extensively covered India’s principal investigative, intelligence and security agencies, including the NIA, CBI, ED, IB, R&AW, MHA and other central security forces. His work has included deeply reported investigations into terrorism, terror financing, cross-border crime, narcotics trafficking, cybercrime, financial fraud and political and corporate corruption. He has reported on some of the most significant terror attacks and security developments in India over the past two decades, including the Delhi serial blasts, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2019 Pulwama terror attack and the recent Pahalgam attack. His reporting has also chronicled the rise and decline of the Indian Mujahideen, the activities and subsequent crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI), Islamist extremist networks, the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, insurgencies in the Northeast and Maoist violence. Some of Neeraj’s major breaking stories are in Aryan Khan drug case, Sushant Singh Rajput suicide, interception of a 3,000-kg Afghan heroin consignment worth about ₹21,000 crore at Mundra port, Sri Lanka easter bombings, Aarushi-Hemraj murders in Noida, 2G scam, coal block allocation scam, AgustWestland VVIP chopper deal and major bank frauds and extradition cases involving Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. His reporting is marked by an ability to cultivate sources, analyse confidential and complex documents, and follow investigations over several years—from the initial breakthrough to chargesheets, trials and international legal proceedings. He specialises in making complicated security and investigative developments accessible while examining their wider implications for governance and public policy. A Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme Fellow at the University of Westminster, Neeraj also spent time at the Financial Times as part of the fellowship. He was also a Robert Bosch Media Ambassadors India-Germany Fellow, studying at the University of Tübingen and working with Der Tagesspiegel in Berlin. He has previously taught investigative journalism and crime reporting as a guest faculty member at the Times School of Journalism. Over more than two decades, Neeraj has established himself as an authoritative voice on India’s national security and investigative landscape, with his reporting closely followed by officials, investigators, lawyers, policymakers and readers seeking insight into some of the country’s most complex and consequential developments.Read More

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