80 UP madrassas under SIT lens for Rs 100cr foreign funding | India News – Times of India

LUCKNOW: The three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), set up to look into the financial sources of madrassas in Uttar Pradesh, has so far identified 80 of them which received nearly Rs 100 crore as donations from several countries over the past two years.Senior officials said the SIT was now trying to identify the head under which these funds were spent by the madrasas and if there were any irregularities thereon.Uttar Pradesh has around 24,000 madrassas, of which over 16,500 are recognized by the UP Board of Madrassa Education.”We will see how the money received through foreign funding has been spent. The brief is to check if the money is being used to run madrassas or for any other activities,” said Mohit Agarwal, additional DG, ATS, who is heading the SIT.Agarwal told TOI that no time frame has been mentioned by the state government yet to complete the probe. Sources privy to the probe added that the SIT has already sought details of registered madrassas from its board.The Yogi Adityanath government last year directed district magistrates to conduct a survey of unrecognised madrasas. During the two-month survey, 8,449 madrassas which were not recognised by the state madrassa education board were found to be functioning.Apart from Lakhimpur Kheri, Pilibhit, Shravasti, Siddharthnagar and Bahraich adjacent to the Nepal border, over 1,000 madrassas are being run in many other nearby areas. Sources said that the number of madrassas in these areas has increased rapidly in the past few years. Besides, information was also received about these madrassas getting foreign funding. After which the SIT was formed.The minority department probe has also revealed that many madrassas were receiving foreign funding.Recently, the ATS has arrested three active members of a gang involved in illegal entry of Bangladeshi citizens and Rohingyas. The investigation revealed that foreign funding of Rs 20 crore was received in three years through a Delhi-run NGO, which was being used to help them.