In a major move highlighting concerns over foreign aid misuse and sovereignty violations, the Ministry of Home Affairs on April 21, 2025, declined to renew the FCRA licence of Anantapur-based NGO Rural Development Trust (RDT). The action followed a detailed complaint by the Hyderabad-based Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF), exposing violations including illegal data transfers to the US, misuse of Government schemes and donor conflicts of interest.
Engaged in Nefarious Activities
Founded in 1969 by a Spanish Jesuit missionary of the Catholic Christian order, Vicente Ferrer, RDT was long seen as a “model NGO” working in rural and remote areas, with ongoing projects across nine districts—six in Andhra Pradesh and three in Telangana.
However, recent findings by LRPF reveal, this reputation was carefully curated for decades—often at the expense of Indian law, national interest, and constitutional protections for vulnerable communities.
Following a thorough online and offline investigation, in March 2024, LRPF submitted a detailed report to the Ministry, exposing how RDT, while implementing welfare schemes funded by both State and foreign contributions worth thousands of crores, operated without proper financial records and engaged in dubious activities—particularly in violation of FCRA provisions. After a full year of scrutiny, the Union Home Ministry acted decisively, suspending RDT’s FCRA licence.
Contours of Complaint
Apart from receiving crores of foreign donations via FCRA, RDT is also a beneficiary of State funding. According to a data disclosed on the NGO Darpan portal, the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department granted over Rs 205 crore to RDT between 2014–15 and 2017–18 to implement welfare schemes.
Form 990, a mandatory financial disclosure submitted by the Vicente Ferrer Foundation (RDT’s U.S.-based donor), to the US Government’s Internal Revenue System, reveals that this American entity not only tracks but also monitors the implementation of RDT’s welfare projects in Andhra Pradesh.
The data shared by RDT to the Vicente Ferrer Foundation includes detailed family profiles of those selected for housing schemes — names, demographics, and household compositions — despite these projects being funded by the Andhra Pradesh Government, not foreign donors. This raises a critical and alarming question: What business do American organisations have to access personal details of Indian citizens benefiting from Government welfare schemes? RDT’s actions represent a grave breach of trust — both with the Government and with the very communities it claims to serve.
There are now growing concerns that RDT may have given foreign organisations undue influence in determining who qualifies for these Government-funded schemes.
Minors’ Data Shared with US Entities
In addition to financial irregularities, RDT was accused of handing over sensitive data of school children collected from Anantapur and other districts to American organisations via the Vicente Ferrer Foundation. The U.S. tax filings (Form 990) reveal that student details, including health, family and financial information, were collected from school Principals and shared with foreign donors, all without parental or Government consent, a criminal breach of child privacy and a threat to national security. By acting as a data conduit under the guise of welfare, RDT has invited foreign interference and violated laws meant to protect India’s most vulnerable.
Conversions Being Encouraged
On March 23, 2024, Deccan Chronicle, an English daily, published a report citing findings from the Central Intelligence Bureau (IB), confirming that the Rural Development Trust (RDT) was actively involved in facilitating religious conversions in parts of Kurnool district. It is reported that following multiple complaints, the IB conducted an in-depth investigation into RDT’s activities and submitted a detailed report to the Union Home Ministry. The findings were clear: RDT was using its foreign-funded programmes as a front to promote Christian conversions in rural areas — a blatant misuse of foreign contributions and a direct violation of India’s constitutional and legal framework.
According to official Form 990-E tax returns filed by the Vicente Ferrer Foundation with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Moncho Ferrer, a key member of RDT’s core committee, is listed as a Director of the donor organisation. At the same time, he holds a leadership role in the Indian recipient body — Rural Development Trust.
This means that the same individual is sitting on both sides of the financial transaction — in the foreign donor agency and in the Indian recipient organisation, a direct violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). This set up makes a mockery of FCRA guidelines and undermines the credibility of India’s legal framework for foreign donations.
According to RDT annual reports, it has supporters from various global organisations, such as Fundación Vicente Ferrer (Spain), Vicente Ferrer Foundation (US), Stiftung Vicente Ferrer (Germany), Friends of RDT (UK), Fundacio FC Barcelona, Laliga Foundation, Swiss Academy For Development, and The Anganwadi Project (Australia).
Interlinked NGOs of RDT
RDT manages a network of four interconnected NGOs in Anantapur district, including Rayalaseema Development Trust (RyDT – FCRA No: 010120012), Women’s Development Trust (WDT – FCRA No: 010120013), and Accion Fraterna Trust (AFT – FCRA No: 010120029). Currently, the FCRA licences of these three NGOs are valid until 2027.
RDT was accused of handing over sensitive data of school children collected from Anantapur and other districts to American organisations via the Vicente Ferrer Foundation
Despite Ministry of Home Affairs rejecting RDT’s FCRA renewal due to misappropriation and diversion of funds, the allied organisations—RyDT, WDT, and AFT—continue to receive substantial foreign contributions and indulge in inter-organisational fund transfers under vague headings such as “social purpose” and “corpus,” involving transactions worth crores. An analysis of RDT’s FCRA returns since 2011–12 reveals widespread and deliberate irregularities.
Even more alarming, Moncho Ferrer is also associated with Fundación Vicente Ferrer, a Spanish organisation that regularly donates to RDT, RyDT, AFT and WDT where he serves simultaneously as a decision-maker in both donor and recipient bodies across multiple organisations — a clear conflict of interest and a potential violation of FCRA norms.
Key findings include overlapping field office addresses across multiple entities, pointing to project duplication and fund replication. Several trusts have declared foreign-funded operations from the same physical premises—strongly suggesting a coordinated scheme to circumvent regulatory oversight and raise funds multiple times for the same activities.
Purpose of receiving foreign funds as shown by Women’s Development Trust in its FCRA Returns filed for 2011-12
Receiving Foreign Funding as shown by Rural Development Trust in its FCRA Returns filed for 2011-12
Purpose of receiving foreign funds as shown by Rayalaseema Development Trust in its FCRA Returns filed for 2011-12
Further, WDT’s FCRA returns for FY 2013–14 and 2014–15 show donations exceeding Rs 19 crore from undisclosed sources, without any accompanying project disclosures. Additionally, both RDT and RyDT received funds from the same Spanish donor for overlapping purposes—raising strong suspicions of donor duplication and fraudulent accounting.
Hospital Patient Fees Diverted to Local Accounts
According to a report published in Eenadu, a reputed Telugu daily, RDT constructed two hospitals in Kalyanadurgam and Battalapalli using more than Rs 60 crore in foreign contributions. However, instead of routing all revenue through the mandatory State Bank of India (SBI) FCRA account — as per law — the trust diverted more than Rs 26 crore collected in patient fees into local, non-FCRA bank accounts.
Misuse of Government Schemes
Between 2014 and 2018, RDT received Rs 205 crore from Andhra Pradesh’s Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department. However, LRPF’s investigation reveals that the trust presented these schemes as its own, branding welfare colonies with the RDT name and obscuring the role of the Indian government. This not only misleads foreign donors but also builds allegiance to the NGO — not the state.
Tampering Beneficiary List of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
LRFP accuses the US-based Vicente Ferrer Foundation of interfering in finalising the beneficiary list of the Prime Minister’s Awas Yojna scheme. It alleges that the Andhra Pradesh Government’s free housing project for poor and marginalised communities is being utilised by the Rural Development Trust for its evangelical activities.
Moreover, LRPF says that by suppressing these details, the NGO renames the housing project as RDT colonies rather than attributing the Prime Minister scheme to give the impression among the poor people that the Rural Development Trust is the sole and absolute stakeholder in these welfare projects. The RDT also constructs churches in the said colony and encourages others to convert to Christianity for more benefits, targeting members of the Schedule caste community.
Misrepresentation Bharat on Global Platforms
Moncho Ferrer, who claims Indian citizenship, brazenly misrepresented the country in a TEDx talk uploaded on October 15, 2011. With striking arrogance, he portrayed himself and his organisation as the sole saviors of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Anantapur — a claim not only deeply misleading but also a disgraceful erasure of the Bharatiya state’s enduring efforts to empower these communities.
In an apparent attempt to pander to foreign audiences and secure international funding, Ferrer painted a distorted image of Bharat, ignoring decades of progress achieved through robust constitutional guarantees, welfare programmes and social justice mechanisms. He made no mention of free education, housing, electricity, or the affirmative action policies enshrined in the Indian Constitution. More outrageously, he completely disregarded the landmark Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989, enacted by the Indian Parliament long before he or his organisation ever made public claims about working for Dalit welfare.
Threats, Lobbying & Manipulation
Rather than acknowledging its FCRA violations and following reapplication guidelines, RDT resorted to intimidation, threats, lobbying, and manipulation to recover its cancelled licence.
As early as March 2024, RDT became aware of the complaint against it. A full year before its suspension, it began mobilising local caste-based and Communist organisations in Anantapur to protest against the NDA Government, particularly Bharatiya Janata Party, falsely claiming that the renewal of its FCRA license was being deliberately delayed and targeted.
Politicians in Andhra Pradesh, from both ruling and opposition parties have been roped in to create a false sense of panic among the people of Anantapur, spreading the dangerous narrative that without RDT, the region has no future. This is fear-mongering of the worst kind — aimed at turning public sentiment against lawful action by the Government. Recently in Vijayawada, RDT convened a round-table conference with Left-leaning civil society groups and caste-based organisations to speak in support of its rural activities.
In conclusion, the fight against foreign-funded NGOs—particularly organisations like RDT that undermine Bharat’s sovereignty, democratic institutions, and Government welfare schemes—is facing a serious challenge. RDT’s toxic mix of street protests, political blackmail, and elite lobbying sets a dangerous precedent. If allowed to succeed, it signals that even those caught violating national laws can escape accountability through manipulation and pressure tactics. Such behaviour erodes the rule of law and poses a grave threat to the future of governance and civil society in Bharat.
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