Following a high-stakes financial surveillance operation, the Kothanur Police in Bengaluru have registered a case under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against a U.S.-based Christian missionary organisation and six individuals. The elite action stems from an official complaint filed by Sunil Kumar Sinhmar, an officer of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED). The probe targets a massive underground network that allegedly bypassed national borders to feed suspicious cash pools across multiple Indian states.
The case names the United States-based outfit, The Timothy Initiative (TTI), along with its core Indian management ring. Investigators allege that the network bypassed the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) systems by moving away from traceable bank wires and routing massive sums using localized plastic cards.
Registration Begins for FutureCrime Summit 2026, India’s Largest Cybercrime Conference
The Truist Bank Fraud Loop
According to the ED’s investigative brief, the syndicate utilized over 1,000 international debit cards issued by Truist Bank, a major commercial banking institution based in the United States. These cards were secretly brought into India and distributed to ground operatives across states like Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, and Assam.
To hide their financial identity, hundreds of these active debit cards were surprisingly configured under a single common name: “Santosh Kumar”. The cards were organized inside internal ledgers using structural regional tags like “NE-1”, “NE-2”, and “Southern Region-1”. Ground handlers used these cards to draw out large, repetitive tranches of hard cash directly from local ATMs, keeping the fund movement completely hidden from standard central banking oversight.
Bastar and Dhamtari LWE Cash Routes
A major portion of the probe centers on the destination of the withdrawn cash. Preliminary intelligence audits revealed that approximately ₹6.34 crore was pulled out specifically within Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected tribal belts in Chhattisgarh, particularly across the volatile Bastar and Dhamtari districts.
Enforcement agencies contend that creating an unregulated, parallel cash economy inside sensitive Naxalite-influenced zones poses a direct threat to India’s internal security and economic sovereignty. Investigators are intensely checking whether the millions were diverted to directly bankroll Naxal operations, facilitate unlawful activities, or fund aggressive religious conversion drives targeting vulnerable tribal communities in these conflict-prone belts.
Airport Seizure and Evidence Destruction
The multi-state network began collapsing on April 18, 2026, when immigration authorities at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport intercepted a key accused, Micah Mark, against a Lookout Circular (LOC) issued by the ED. A search of his baggage led to the physical recovery of 24 international debit cards.
The ED also noted that the group attempted to destroy critical electronic footprints. Immediately after the agency executed its preliminary pan-India raids, handlers located outside India allegedly logged into the network’s specialized billing and accounting platforms to remotely wipe out backend database servers, aiming to erase transaction records and intercept logs.
Syndicate Roles Under Court Scrutiny
The FIR breaks down the operational hierarchy of the group inside India:
- Ajit Verghese Mathai: Functioned as the overall financial director managing the core India operations.
- Jonathan S. Rajan: Supervised the localized field strategies and operational movements for TTI.
- Micah Mark: Managed the core distribution pipelines for the international debit cards.
- Varghese Chacko, Bablu Kurmi, and Supreme Joy: Operated as ground handlers to run ATM withdrawals and distribute physical cash.
The case has been filed under multiple punitive sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, and destruction of electronic evidence, coupled with severe anti-terror components under the UAPA. Due to the cross-border nature of the funding and national security implications, officials indicate the trial files may soon be handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
