New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS): A special court has taken cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case pertaining to alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) by an NGO linked to corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar.

Special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar took cognisance of the chargesheet on Wednesday and stated that there is "sufficient ground" against all the accused. They have been summoned to appear before the court on March 16.

"The allegations in the complaint prima facie show that the arrayed accused were involved in the process of acquisition of proceeds of crime...the offences under Section 3 read with Section 70, punishable under Section 4 of PMLA, 2002, is made out," the court observed.

The Enforcement Directorate had, on December 4, 2017, registered a case against the NGO Advantage India, controlled by accused Deepak Talwar, for alleged violation of FCRA rules and had begun its investigation to trail the proceeds of the crime.

The investigating agency alleged that the foreign contribution obtained by the NGO in 2012-13 and 2015-2016 was "not utilised for the mandated purposes". Rs 90.72 crore funding was received from MBDA England (leading European missile manufacturer) and Airbus France under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) grant process.

According to an investigation undertaken by the agency, Advantage India did not spend funds on mandated purposes. ED alleged that a criminal conspiracy was hatched to divert funds for non-mandated purposes, by booking bogus expenditure in the books of account on the basis of forged documents.

It is alleged that Deepak Talwar had roped in other accused persons, named in the complaint, to execute his plan.