Arise Bharat

For many families in vulnerable communities, dignity and identity are as precious as survival itself. When the image of a child is taken without consent and projected to the world as a victim of sexual exploitation, labelled a “Jogini” for the purpose of attracting foreign sympathy and donations, the harm goes far beyond financial fraud. It strikes at the core of human dignity, inflicts lasting psychological trauma, and exploits poverty in its most cruel form. It is against this disturbing backdrop of alleged misuse of children’s identities and fabricated victim narratives that India’s premier financial investigation agency has now stepped in.

In a major crackdown on alleged financial fraud in the education and charity sector, the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Hyderabad Zonal Office, has provisionally attached 12 immovable properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. While the book value of these properties stands at ₹3.58 crore, their present market value is estimated at nearly ₹15 crore. The action follows an extensive investigation into the Operation Mobilisation (OM India) group, which operates the Good Shepherd Schools across several parts of the country.

The ED investigation has exposed what officials describe as a large-scale, organised racket involving the misappropriation of tuition fees, ancillary charges, government-funded RTE reimbursements, scholarship amounts, and substantial foreign donations. These funds were collected in the name of providing education and welfare support to Dalit and other marginalised children but were allegedly diverted for unauthorised purposes.

The probe was initiated following an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), CID, Telangana, under multiple sections of the IPC, 1860, against OM India entities and their key office bearers. CID investigations revealed that the Operation Mercy India Foundation (OMIF) and its affiliated organisations diverted and misappropriated approximately ₹296.6 crore received as foreign and domestic donations over several years.

In an earlier development connected to the same set of allegations, the Economic Offences Wing of the Telangana Crime Investigation Department reportedly froze 26 bank accounts belonging to the Operation Mobilisation Trust and its group of Christian charity organisations on 21 November 2020. This action was taken based on criminal complaints lodged by Mr. Albert Lael, the former Chief Finance Officer of the Operation Mobilisation India group of charities, pointing to serious financial irregularities within the organisation.

As per the CID chargesheet, Dr. Joseph D’Souza, his son Josh Lawrence D’Souza, and other senior functionaries allegedly orchestrated a systematic diversion of donor funds, including large contributions from overseas Christian charity networks such as the Dalit Freedom Network in the USA, Canada, and the UK. These funds were projected as being used for free English-medium education, community development, and upliftment of disadvantaged sections.

Contrary to these claims, the ED found that students in Good Shepherd Schools were charged regular tuition fees, along with fees for books, uniforms, and transportation. These collections were falsely recorded as “local donations,” even as the schools continued to receive foreign sponsorship funds, government RTE reimbursements, and scholarship amounts. This resulted in double funding for the same students. Between 2011–12 and 2017–18, substantial amounts collected from students and government schemes were concealed from foreign donors, who were led to believe they were funding free education.

A forensic audit and searches conducted by the ED at OM India offices and residences of key office bearers led to the seizure of financial records, property documents, and electronic devices. The investigation uncovered deliberate manipulation of student sponsorship data to inflate donor claims. This included assigning multiple student codes to the same child, using different codes for the same student across different years, showing multiple students under a single code, and altering photographs, dates of birth, and parents’ names. Investigators also found contradictions in caste, gender, class, and other personal details. Despite claims by the accused regarding data retention limitations, seized electronic records revealed that OMIF maintained extensive historical student datasets spanning several years.

The ED has identified ₹15.37 crore as confirmed proceeds of crime arising from the diversion of student fee collections and government subsidies. Although the schools received significant aid under RTE and scholarship schemes, students were still charged full fees. Government reimbursements were allegedly diverted to OMIF’s head office accounts instead of being passed on to the intended beneficiaries.

Further investigation revealed that between 2014–15 and 2016–17, amounts collected from parents for books, uniforms, ties, belts, and transport services were diverted to the Good Shepherd Community Society (GSCS), an entity engaged in religious activities. These collections were recorded as local donations and were subsequently used for church-related expenditures and the acquisition of immovable properties.

The ED also found that diverted funds were routed through affiliated entities, used for extravagant foreign travel—including business-class flights by Dr. Joseph D’Souza and other senior officials—and siphoned off through bogus expenses and cash withdrawals. These funds were ultimately invested in real estate purchased in the personal names of key office bearers and other entities beneficially controlled by them.

Investigators concluded that Dr. Joseph Gregory D’Souza, who describes himself as the Archbishop of the Good Shepherd churches, exercised overarching spiritual, administrative, and strategic control over all group entities. His son, Josh Lawrence D’Souza, allegedly functioned as the operational and financial head, overseeing manipulated records, managing foreign inflows, coordinating inter-entity transfers, and handling donor communications. Dr. D’Souza was also identified as a founding member of several overseas donor organisations and was found to have travelled frequently abroad to mobilise funds. Notably, several donor websites were found to be blocked or inaccessible from India, indicating possible efforts to evade regulatory scrutiny.

In a particularly disturbing revelation, the ED found that OM India entities misrepresented ordinary Good Shepherd School students as “joginis,” women allegedly rescued from ritual sexual exploitation, in order to extract higher monthly sponsorships from foreign donors. Images of regular students and unrelated children were uploaded on donor platforms despite the absence of any actual jogini rehabilitation programme. Donations under this category ranged from USD 60 to 68 per month, compared to USD 20 to 28 for regular student sponsorships, enabling inflated fundraising based on false representations.

This allegation also finds reflection in a criminal complaint lodged earlier at the local level. On 22 January 2021, Mr. D. Raju, son of D. Ashanna, filed a complaint with the PetBasheerabad Police stating that a team associated with Dr. Joseph D’Souza used to visit his slum regularly under the pretext of teaching the Bible and claimed to have “adopted” the locality. According to the complaint, the team routinely photographed residents and their children. Mr. Raju later discovered that his daughter’s photograph had been published on social media on 15 December 2020, falsely portraying her as a “Jogini-Devadasi,” a victim of human trafficking, and even misrepresented as suffering from HIV/AIDS. The complainant stated that these acts caused severe mental agony, public humiliation, and damage to the family’s dignity and self-respect. The complaint was registered as FIR No. 81/2021 dated 22-01-2021.

Following field verification, the Ministry of Home Affairs, through its FCRA Division, ordered the non-renewal of FCRA licences and froze the FCRA accounts of several OM India entities for violations of the FCRA, 2010. Despite these restrictions, investigators found that the group allegedly continued to receive foreign funds by routing them through OM Books Foundation under the guise of commercial printing invoices.

The ED has stated that further investigation is ongoing, including the identification of additional proceeds of crime and examination of the roles of other individuals involved in laundering the diverted funds.