The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 12 immovable properties valued at ₹3.58 crore belonging to Operation Mobilisation (OM India) Group of Charities under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The current market value of these properties stands at approximately ₹15 crore.
The action follows an investigation into large-scale misappropriation of tuition fees and ancillary charges collected from students of Good Shepherd Schools, operated across India by the OM India group, as well as government-funded RTE and scholarship amounts between 2011-12 and 2017-18.
The ED initiated its probe based on an FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing of Telangana CID, which uncovered widespread organised fraud within Operation Mercy India Foundation (OMIF) and its affiliated organisations. According to the CID chargesheet, Dr Joseph D’Souza, his son Josh Lawrence D’Souza, and other key office bearers systematically diverted approximately ₹296.6 crore in foreign and domestic donations received from major Christian charity networks, including Dalit Freedom Network (DFN) USA, Canada and UK.
These funds were ostensibly meant for the education and upliftment of Dalit and marginalised children. Although the group claimed to provide free English-medium education, community development and rehabilitation assistance, investigators found that substantial funds were diverted into private accounts, fixed deposits and real estate transactions.
The ED press release accessed by Christian Today stated that Dr Joseph Gregory D’Souza, whom the release described as a self-proclaimed Archbishop of Good Shepherd churches, “exercised overarching spiritual, administrative and strategic control across all group entities,” while his son Josh Lawrence D’Souza functioned as the operational and financial head. According to the press release, the younger D’Souza was “responsible for maintaining manipulated records, managing foreign inflows, coordinating inter-entity transfers and handling donor communications.”
Dr Joseph D’Souza was identified as a founding member of several overseas donor organisations and frequently travelled abroad to mobilise funds for operations of the Indian entities. Investigators found that websites of foreign donor organisations were obscured or inaccessible from India, pointing to deliberate restrictions to prevent regulatory scrutiny.
Searches conducted by the ED at OM India offices and residences of key office bearers led to the seizure of property documents, financial records and electronic devices. Examination of these materials revealed deliberate manipulation in student sponsorship data aimed at inflating the number of students claimed to be sponsored and justifying receipt of additional foreign donations.
The manipulations included assigning multiple student codes to the same individual, different student codes for different years, different students under the same code, and altering personal details such as photographs, dates of birth and parents’ names. Inconsistencies were also found in parameters like height, class, caste and gender. Despite the accused attempting to withhold historical data citing retention limitations, seized electronic records revealed that OMIF maintained extensive student datasets spanning several years.
The investigation established that Good Shepherd Schools collected regular fees, book charges, uniform and bus fees from all students, including those represented as fully sponsored to donors. The schools also received substantial government aid under RTE and scholarship schemes, yet students were charged full fees. Government reimbursements were diverted to OMIF’s head office accounts rather than being passed on to students. Regular tuition fees and other charges collected from students were recorded falsely as “local donations” in submissions to foreign donors. The ED has identified ₹15.37 crore as proceeds of crime arising from the diversion of student collections and government subsidies.
Between 2014-15 and 2016-17, expenses on books, uniforms, ties, belts and bus services were diverted to Good Shepherd Community Society (GSCS), an entity engaged in religious activities. These amounts were collected directly from students and parents and recorded by GSCS as local donations, which were subsequently utilised for church-related expenditures and acquisition of immovable properties.
The investigation also uncovered that the OM India group misrepresented ordinary Good Shepherd School students as “joginis” (sexually exploited temple attendants) to foreign donors to solicit higher sponsorship amounts. As per the ED press release, images of regular students and unrelated children were uploaded on donor websites and social media portraying them as joginis, though these children had no such background and no rehabilitation programme existed. Donations for “jogini rehabilitation” ranged from USD 60-68 per month, compared to USD 20-28 per month for regular student sponsorship.
According to the press release, misappropriated funds were used for extravagant foreign travel by senior functionaries, including business-class travel, and were siphoned off through bogus expenses. Cash withdrawn through these means was used to acquire properties in the personal names of key office bearers and other entities beneficially controlled by them.
Following field verifications, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ FCRA Division ordered non-renewal of FCRA licences of multiple OM India entities and froze their FCRA accounts for violations. However, the ED stated that the group leadership, in collusion with foreign donors, allegedly adopted alternate methods to receive foreign funds, routing them through OM Books Foundation under the guise of printing-related commercial invoices despite the restrictions imposed under the FCRA.
Further investigation is underway.
