The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against a United States of America-based Christian missionary group, The Timothy Initiative (TTI), and several other individuals in connection with an alleged use of Rs 92.55 crore for missionary activities in violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, officials said Wednesday.
The CCBI filed the case based on a complaint from the Union Home Ministry, which in turn was based on an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
According to reports, TTI utilised the funds between November 2025 and April 2026 for missionary activities. In violation of the FCRA, TTI withdrew Rs 44 crore using debit cards issued by Truist Bank in the US. The money was withdrawn across multiple states like Karnataka, Chandigarh, and Assam from January 2024 to March 2026.
Along with the entity, the central agency has also booked its India operations in-charge Jonathan S Rajan, finance head Ajit Verghese Mathai, Micah Mark and field-level functionaries of the organisation, Varghese Chacko, Supreme Joy, and Bablu Kurmi.
What did CBI say?
The CBI has alleged that Rajan's role was to ensure the funds were used for TTI activities that included, but were not limited to, training, preaching and brainwashing of poor people to lead them to Left-wing extremism across India.
Micah Mark was the key person in the financial operation of TTI. Mathai was the "overall Finance Head of the India operations of TTI, USA, through various front/shell entities like Lead LLP and Crosswise LLP, having registered office in Bangalore".
What exposed the FCRA violation, extremism link
On April 18, the ED intercepted a person named Micah Mark at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport. The probe agency found 24 foreign debit cards, all of Truist Bank, on him.
What led to further suspicion was a name 'Santosh Kumar' printed on all the cards. His residence was raided, and the agency found that he had travelled to foreign countries many times and had returned with such debit cards each time.
"It was further revealed that the said cards (24 Nos.) were printed only in the name of Santosh Kumar, being a very generic name in India (earlier cards were being issued in the name of regions i.e. NE-1, NE-2, Southern Region-I etc.) on the instructions of Ajit Verghese Mathai so as to avoid suspicion and LEAs (law enforcement agencies) and in violation of the KYC norms to conceal the real user, thereby forging the real identity and using fraudulent means to evade the law," the agency has alleged.
According to CBI, over 1,000 such debit cards have been distributed in India over the past few years.
As the search operation intensified, the organisation's fraud was exposed, and subsequently, the TTI Global portal (www,ttlglobal.org) became inaccessible in India.
"Further, the data, which is maintained on the 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," the CBIT FIR said.
(With PTI Inputs)