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CBI raids Indira Jaising's home

New Delhi: The CBI on Thursday morning raided former Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising's residence in Delhi, in connection with an FCRA violation case it registered against NGO Lawyers Collective and its founder Anand Grover. Grover is married to Jaising.

Speaking to the press a few hours after the raids began, Jaising said, "I and Mr Grover are being targetted because of the human rights work that we have been doing."

CBI sleuths raided a total of five locations in Mumbai and Delhi in connection with the case. Two offices of Lawyers Collective and one residence of Grover were searched in Mumbai. In the Capital, Jaising and Grover's house in Nizammudin East was searched in addition to Jaising's office at C-65 Nizamuddin East.

When the probe agency had registered the case, LC, Jaising, and Grover had come out with a joint statement expressing shock and outrage over the CBI's action, which was based on an MHA investigation into alleged FCRA violations by LC.

The MHA had cancelled LC's registration to receive foreign funding in 2016, but the NGO had appealed the decision in the Bombay High Court, where the matter is pending.

While sources say that the Delhi office was under Jaising's name, it is listed as one of LC's offices on its website. Jaising is not an accused in CBI's FIR.

However, in the MHA complaint, based on which the CBI has registered its case, the government alleged that LC had paid Rs 96.6 lakh to Jaising, during her time as ASG, from funds received as foreign contributions.

LC had earlier said that Jaising was being paid remuneration before, during, and after her tenure as ASG, with requisite permission from the Law Ministry.

In addition to this, the CBI's FIR includes a slew of allegations pertaining to alleged use of foreign funding for political activities such as drafting legislature and protest-related activities.

The earlier statement by LC read, "It (the FIR) has been filed to target the organisation and its office bearers to silence them for cases and issues they have taken up in the past and continue to take up since 2016.

LC and its office bearers have represented activists in the Bhima Koregaon case, ex-Kolkata top cop Rajeev Kumar, and a former employee of the Supreme Court who had levelled sexual harassment allegations against the CJI. They have also taken up the Sohrabuddin case, where Home Minister Amit Shah was earlier an accused an later cleared of charges.

At least 50 opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha also issued a joint statement condemning the raids at Jaising and Grover's premises. Calling it a "brute show of intimidation" and a "gross abuse of power", the statement read, "We strongly urge the government and authorities to halt such act of coercion and intimidation."

Some of the signatories of the statement include Kapil Sibal (INC), D Raja (CPI), P Chidambaram (INC),

Sanjay Singh (AAP), and Jaya Bachchan (SP).

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also condemned CBI's raids on the prominent

litigators in a tweet earlier on Thursday, calling it "clear vendetta".

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