Hill Voice, August 12, 2025, Special Reporter: Suhas Chakma alias Bodhimitra, who is a Bangladeshi and lives in New Delhi, is not a human rights defender, rather a human rights and NGOs businessman. Through his several NGOs, he brought in crores of rupees of foreign funds from various donor organizations in the name of human rights. After doing some nominal work with these funds, he embezzles most of the money. As a result, he is currently the owner of hundreds of crores of rupees. He has immovable and movable properties worth crores of rupees in various places of India.
The proof of corrupt of foreign funds by Suhas Chakma is glaring. Prior to 2003 he was living in a rented accommodation with family in C2 Block Janakpuri, Delhi. His wife Nitaly Dewan alias Glory Chakma is a housewife. They have two sons and none in the family other than Suhas Chakma was earning. But since the time he started Asian Centre for Human Rights in 2003, he has bought as many as 8 expensive flats/apartments in posh areas of Delhi and several houses and land plots in Tripura, some of them are benami properties (i.e. held in some other’s name), within such a short time. Thus prima facie proves his corrupt of the foreign funds received through his NGOs.
Suhas Chakma has six NGOs that include 1) Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), 2) Indigenous Lawyers Association of India (ILAI), 3) Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Network (AITPN), 4) Rights and Risk Analysis Group (RRAG), 5) Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI) and 6) Chakma Reporter (news channel).
Although these NGOs are registered as Public Charitable Trust and under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), in reality both of these are fake/bogus as far as their management and staff is concerned. All the trustees are rubber stamps of Suhas Chakma. This allowed Suhas Chakma to commit massive embezzlement of the funds through corrupt and fraudulent means. Hence, he violated the FCRA which states that funds should be utilized for the purpose for which funds were received.
The main foreign agencies which funded Suhas Chakma’s NGOs are: Georg Soros’s Foundation Open Society Institute (Switzerland), Firs Church in Mriborough (USA), Inter Church Organization for Development Cooperation or ICCO (Denmark), Ford Foundation (USA), International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (Denmark), European Commission (Belgium), United Nations Development Programme, CordAid (Denmark), Asia Foundation (USA), American Jewish World Services (USA), Action Aid Asian Regional Office (Thailand), KIOS (Finland), Frontline Defenders (Ireland), JustPeace (Australia), Infinite Compassion (Germany), Minority Rights Group International (UK), Government of Denmark, etc; and domestic sources namely Dan Church Aid (New Delhi), Mahatma Gandhi Sewa Ashram.
Suhas Chakma has been receiving funds from IWGIA through his NGOs namely ACHR and ILAI. The Chakmas of India from Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura and Delhi have raised serious concerns about the misuse of the IWGIA fund to exterminate the movement of the Chakmas for human rights in a systematic manner. Suhas might have secured a few good orders from National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India but what he is doing to the community is more injuries than what he has achieved.
For instances, far from being “a platform of the lawyers belonging to indigenous peoples in India”, there is not a single lawyer in ILAI. As per the information gathered, Santosh Chakma, who is legal head of ACHR, was the Director of ILAI up to 2022 when he was diagnosed with cancer. Since Santosh Chakma is bedridden, Suhas Chakma has named his another employee Mr Tejang Chakma (who is a researcher in ACHR) as the Director of ILAI. Tejang Chakma is himself not a lawyer and not even a graduate. Similarly, another employee of Suhas Chakma namely Amal Kanti Chakma (who is the documentation officer in ACHR) has been fraudulently appointed as President of ILAI. Amal Kanti Chakma is reportedly not even a graduate, leave alone being a lawyer. Even Suhas Chakma who is the de facto boss of ILAI is not a lawyer himself.
Not only fake NGOs, Suhas Chakma has also created many fake/bogus companies to launder the foreign funds received by ACHR, AITPN and ILAI. Interestingly he is the director in these companies along with his relatives. The details of the companies where Suhas Chakma is the director are given below:
Total Legal Solution (legal company): This company is used to embezzle funds related to legal activities including court cases and complaint filed before the NHRC, lawyers’ fees etc. Fake bills are generated using this company. Suhas also extensively uses Phoenix Law Firm to make fake bills.
Wanderlust Travels (travel agency company): This travel agency was used to create fake bills related to travel including air tickets purchasing etc.
Rights Chronicle Publications Pvt Ltd and Periphery Media Pvt Ltd: These two companies have been extensively used to create fake bills related to printing and publication of reports, newsletters, books etc.
All these Private Limited companies are run from properties owned by Suhas Chakma or his family. The sole earnings of these companies are from NGOs run by Suhas Chakma namely ACHR, AITPN, ILAI etc and therefore all earnings directly go to the pockets of Suhas Chakma. Funds received by Suhas’ NGOs have been embezzled through manufacturing of fake bills by these companies run by Suhas or his family members. Hence, it was a conflict of interest and Suhas and his family members heavily benefit out of illegal embezzlement of the foreign funds received by ACHR and AITPN.
By embezzling the foreign contribution, Suhas Chakma and his family members have amassed unaccounted wealth within short time and purchased several costly real estate properties in posh areas of Delhi, Agartala (capital of Tripura) and other parts of Tripura. As per private investigation, Chakma leaders have found that Suhas Chakma and his wife Nitaly Dewan have purchased 8 houses/flats in affluent localities of Delhi, each worth crore of rupees, 2 houses in Agartala, and 22 acres of land in Agartala city of Tripura, and huge plantations in Dhalai district of Tripura. Suhas’ brother Dayasish Chakma and his wife have purchased 15 acre of land in Agartala city alone. It is learnt that Suhas Chakma has also purchased land plots in different districts of Tripura in his name or in the name of his wife, children, parents and siblings and other relatives.
A Tripura social leader, who did not wish to be named, said, it is a big crime of Suhas Chakma to commit corruption bringing funds from various donor organizations in the name of protecting the human rights of the Chakma community. But his greater crime and objection than the corruption is that Suhas Chakma is using that money to create division and conflict within the Chakma community in India and that whenever someone criticizes him, he (Suhas) harasses by filing a defamation case against the critic. While Suhas Chakma might have managed to obtain a few good orders from NHRC of India but what he has done and doing is more harmful/injuries to Chakmas of India. He is destroying the democratic struggle of the Chakmas in India by incapacitating the leaders to work and dividing the Chakmas using the funds of IWGIA and other donors.
The Chakmas of India have alleged that far from championing the rights of the Chakmas, Suhas Chakma has been more interested in dividing them and creating conflicts using the funds received from donors like IWGIA for his own personal interests.
