Several teams of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are carrying out searches at eight locations, including the offices of Open Society Foundations (OSF), a group supported by US billionaire George Soros, in Bengaluru. 

The raids are part of an investigation into possible violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Sources indicate that a preliminary investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) suggests that the Ministry of Home Affairs placed the OSF under the "Prior Reference Category" in 2016. This designation restricts the organisation from making unregulated donations to NGOs in India. 

It is alleged that to bypass this restriction, “the OSF had subsidiaries in India and brought in funds in the form of FDI and consultancy fees and these funds have been used to fund activities of the NGOs, which is a FEMA contravention”, ED sources claimed. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also investigating how the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) funds received by the Soros Economic Development Fund (EDF) were utilised. In February 2023, Soros spoke about industrialist Gautam Adani and the stock selloff of the Adani Group companies following the release of the Hindenburg Research report in a speech before the Munich Security Conference. 

He remarked that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “no democrat” yet the Adani “affair” could “open the door to a democratic revival” in India. During his 40-minute speech, he mentioned India shortly after talking about open and closed societies.