New Delhi, Mar 29 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Tuesday refused to pass directions to the Centre on a public interest litigation seeking a probe into the allegations of siphoning of funds, which were collected by certain overseas organisations from the public in the name of COVID-19 relief, towards terrorist activities.

A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi noted that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has already sought from the petitioner -- Mohammad Ashfaq Hussain, the relevant documents which form the basis of his claims and opined that there was no reason to assume that the central government was not alive to the problem.

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“There is no reason for the court to assume that the central government and its agencies are not alive to the problem... We are of the view that no direction is called for on the petition,” said the bench which also comprised Justice Navin Chawla.

The lawyer for the petitioner submitted before the court that there were reports which showed that certain organisations collected crores of rupees through crowd sourcing in the name of providing aid and help to India during the second wave of the pandemic but ultimately diverted the money to organisations having terror links.

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It was alleged that the funds were collected by misleading the public and were then siphoned off to anti-India organisations.

The petitioner submitted that a huge amount of donation was collected by certain organisation having “deep rooted links with terrorist, anti-nationalists and radical Islamic groups” in the absence of any accountability.

Apart from seeking an investigation, the petitioner also prayed for a direction to the centre to formulate a policy to regulate fund raising by organisations to provide aid during and thus protect the goodwill of the country and prevent anti-India activities.

The counsel for the petitioner informed the court that ED has sought relevant information from him in relation to the allegations for investigation into the “financial” aspect for his allegations.

“This is not something the government is not alive to. Why should the court interfere? They (ED) will take it forward if they find something worthwhile,” the court remarked.

“We don't want to issue any directions. They will take action,” added the court which also said that while it is for the donors to exercise due diligence, if funds are collected in the manner alleged by the petitioner, it amounts to breach of public trust and there are sufficient laws to deal with it.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)