Relief India Trust, the Scam NGO, Files a Legal Notice Against my Blog Post for Defamation

Relief India Trust Google Reviews
From when I wrote my last blog post on Relief India Trust, there have been consistent efforts to take my site down through dubious legal means, the latest of which is a defamation legal notice against me by the Relief India Trust folks. Here’s a factsheet:

  • I received a mail on 9th February, 2013, and also a ton of calls earlier to this date asking me to donate to a charity named Relief India Trust. The people on the call were extremely pushy and while initially I thought it was because of the urgency of the case, I quickly became suspicious. When I started asking them about their NGO registration number, their 80G registration etc. they hung up the phone and stopped responding.
  • I wrote the blog on 13th of February, and it immediately started accumulating comments from lots of folks who had similar experiences.
  • I forgot about all of this until somebody else at the organisation called me up again. I replied that I knew this was a scam, and they hung up immediately.
  • In June, I received a call from a journalist working for The Sunday Guardian asking me further details about the Trust. She also visited their office and informed me that there weren’t any kids there, “only a lady who gave us a long brief about the ngo and so forth”.
  • August 5, I received an email from a person claiming to be from RIT and claiming that somebody else was calling on their behalf. I don’t understand how this can be the case because they ask us to donate by going to the same website. Unfortunately I was so disgusted that I did not reply to this message. That mail is available here.
  • In September, another person emailed me saying they had received a take down notice.
  • In Nov of 2013, I noticed that my blog was not loading. When I contacted my hosting provider (wordpress.com), they said my site was under a DDOS attack. Please see my conversation with my hosting provider.
  • In the Jan of 2014, they filed a DMCA complaint against me with my hosting provider and took down my site until I could file the counter notice. As many of you would know, DMCA notices are used to report copyright violation, so this was definitely a tactic to take my site down.
  • The latest action from their end is this threatening legal notice I received this week.

India’s defamation laws aren’t exactly the most progressive, but in the interests of not letting such dubious “Trusts” get away with anything, I asked around on Twitter for any lawyers willing to provide some legal advice. Anoop reminded me about my school senior Aju who now runs MyLaw.net and he in turn connected me to Apar of Advani & Co who is now representing me. My initial interactions with Apar were through Twitter, and he’s been a pleasure to talk to. Find Apar’s response here, wherein he manages to quote Arkell vs. Pressdam 🙂

Will keep you folks updated.

Update (October 27, 2014): I haven’t heard back from them after the notice was replied to, but wanted to update all of you on certain new developments thanks to comments on this post:

  • Read the official AIIMS policy on donation & abide by it.
  • Relief India Trust now has a listing on the NGO registry, to reach this page yourself, go to the NGO home page and put in 0081349 on the home page. This however, doesn’t mean a thing, as we should ask for audited financial statements for authenticity. Anybody can start an NGO.
  • Please find uploaded here a list of fake documents they send across when asked for proof. Note that most of these are outdated, and some are outright photoshopped.

Update (Nov 6, 2014): Sanjeev, one of the commenters on the original post has provided a far more detailed info of the operations in his comment.

113 responses

  1. My question is how to block them entirely? Is there any way to do that? I have received 5 calls from 5 different numbers today. I do have true caller app but still I am expecting some job related calls and I cant ignore all unknown numbers.

  2.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Got call from volunteers Rekha and Ankit (9211595893) about a girl child named Priyanshi. I was touched by their story and about to pay.
    Thanks to this blog and the commenters.

  3. I got a call just a while back from someone called Jayant (+91-9210865521). He said there was a medical emergency for a girl child, who would be undergoing chemotherapy today afternoon at AIIMS. The call sounded fraudulous initially, but when he mentioned sentences like “You are not a donor madam, you will be a life saviour… She is just 4 years old, like a daughter to you… Only 32123/- more is needed for her chemotherapy treatment to start today…”, I started feeling that there might be some genuineness in it. I asked him to SMS me the account number & bank details to which he expected me to transfer the amount. Thankfully (to your posts & comments), I did not initiate any transfer.
    Here are the details that he sent me through SMS:
    Account name: Relief Trust
    Bank: Punjab National Bank
    Branch: Sec-16, Noida
    Account number: 6713000100005342
    IFSC code: PUNB0671300

    He mentioned in his call that the “Relief Trust” would provide me 80G certificate for 50% tax exemption.

    After reading such posts & comments, I feel even genuine NGOs are going to lose their credibility because of these kinds of fraudulent so-called-NGOs. People, please be aware of such calls. If NGOs can be opened by anyone, anywhere, any time, I really wonder how people can distinguish real ones from the fake ones. Now, if there is a real girl child suffering at some corner of the world, all my prayers, blessings & hope would be with her. I just hope I have not let down a genuine call for help.

    1. Got another call from (+91-9211394191) just now to check if I made the transfer.

    2. Got another call from the same guy Jayant, from a new number (+91-9211134293), on Saturday, asking whether I made the money transfer. I was traveling, due to which the network got cut & the call got disconnected. I received an SMS from him later stating “Mam its not fare,directly tell me not interested,but dont cut t call again.Its not ur daughter so why ru hlping,think about ur self and repl me.U hv done gd job.”
      No comments.

  4. They just called me. I googled their organization name with scam and found this. I did that because I was recently cheated by a Delhi based group named ‘National NGO | National Organzation for Social Empowerment’ for Rs.3000. They said it was for the treatment of a kid named ‘Amil’ suffering from Acute Myeloid Leukemia (Blood Cancer) in AIIMS Hospital.

  5. I first started getting calls from Relief India Trust about 2 yrs ago, different names and numbers, they called me in spite of DND. They said they are a bunch of students trying to help. They called frequently having similar stories (small poor kid, parents cant afford treatment, AIIMS, tumor, cancer, heart disease, needs immediate operation). They gave me proof of letter from AIIMS, doctor and case number, NGO registrations etc. I researched on the internet and saw a lot of complains against the company. I even came across a post claiming to be an ex-employee of this so called NGO. He said actually its a call center for approx. 200 employees who try to con ppl. They even have a set up of about 7 to 10 children (in a speech therapy center), serving as a front for this fraud. I still keep getting calls, from different names, different organizations (they keep changing the name of the NGO) but the story remains the same with minor variations (name of the kid, disease). Do not fall for these calls.

    The fact is that it is very convenient to keep creating new companies and registering them as a NGO. I was looking for websites where this could be reported, to bring it to a stop. The point is that it is being operated as a business model and the returns are high. That is why you will face a lot of resistance. I appreciate the fight that you have taken up.

  6. I received the call(9211132249) two days ago and was talking very politely firstly. When I asked to send mail he said he will send in half an hour. After half an hour I was keep getting calls and he asked me to check mail properly as I had not received the any mail. The story started when on call only he made me to go to payment page, I got suspicious about this act as how can some one be so clever that while describing the NGO someone wants me to donate then and there. Same time I was checking in consumercomplaint forums. I was shocked to read so many complaints. I told him also that there are a lot of complaints against your NGO. Then he was pretending and saying even a very good company has lot of complaints blah blah . I told I can not proceed with this way then he lost his temper and started talking in anger and cut the call.
    I was not able to understand what has happened and after google, I landed up here. Read post n comments and understood whole story.Thanks for informative post.

  7. Kanishka Pandey Avatar
    Kanishka Pandey

    Valuable information………. Thanks a lot……….

  8.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Bloody hell,

    I received a call (9211396950) from this trust today (5th Jan 2015) asking for donation. Boss, Donation is my wish, you can’t force me….

    and those people have sent a number of messages also.

  9. Himanshu Avatar
    Himanshu

    On 3rd Jan’15 I received a call on my mobile around 7:30 PM asking for donation to a suffering girl child Priyanshi. I requested to send me details over email and he sent me email with bank details. Today on 5th Jan, again I received call from same guy asking for money. To clear my doubt and be sure that I am transferring money to right NGO I googled and found this blog. Thank you for letting others know about this fake NGO.

    1. Avinash Avatar

      Lol. I just now got a call for same girl child Priyanshi 4 year old, suffering from blood cancer. Thanks to this site. I am not going to make a payment. Good job Vishnu. Why shouldnt this trust be pulled down. Why is still alive and kicking? Can we all do something?

  10. Thanks a ton dude.I too got a call from them and the kid name they quoted is “Kesav” with blood cancer (saw in the comments that the same name has been already used). Was about to make the payment but decided to do a little background check and found your blog.
    While going through your blog, got a call again from the “so called student volunteer” named Kapil reminding me about the payment, the moment i quoted your blog, there was complete silence followed by a disconnect. Thanks for providing “Relief from the Relief India Trust”.
    BTW they have registered their Trust with Indian Government, but have mentioned “PaulFoundation from Tamilnadu” as their parent organization. After going through Paul Foundations website didn’t find any connect between Relief India from New Delhi and Paul Foundation from Tamilnadu (no 2 states haooening here)

  11. Palkesh Avatar

    I received call today to support a child named “Keshav” who admitted in ICU in AIIMS for cancer treatment. They need 35k more to complete the treatment cost of $280k. I am willing to donate for this cuase but after seeing this blog I am confused, whether they are just fraud or they actually in need. I saw indian express news online they are appriciating the RTI works. see here :http://indianexpress.com/article/india/education/relief-india-trust-providing-a-holistic-service-to-the-underprivileged/
    I think someone need to find out whether their intension is righ? The support that already provided (by people who said they donated already) to them whether it reached to right hand or not? The bolg information is not that accurate to prove they are fraud or not. having said that I do not want people just see this blog (since there is no genuine proof) and stop donating to them where someone is in need of genuine help.

    1. Dear Palkesh..

      Good to hear for donation..

      1) Please visit and see the kid.
      2) Check the way they speak… after there explanation about the problem of kids you ask for some time after 30min – 1hr gap.. and call back again they will tell new story.. which is no sync..
      3) Ask him how he got your number and strictly ask from where he got the call and say that you are a CID police dept.. and want to visit and see the patient… Doodh ka Doodh paani ka paani hojayega….

      If you really want to help visit personally…
      -ALL THE BEST…

  12. I received a call from them today itself, and I asked for the contact number of the doctor involved in the treatment. They replied that doctors complain a lot about getting enquiries like these so they cannot provide me the number however I can check their site which i tried to check and found your blog!
    😀
    They insisted that they are students and asked me to help a child called Keshav admitted in AIIMS. Though I thought of donating but now I am totally confused.
    Is this a genuine NGO?

    1. hai thx all u today igot a call

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