On Thursday, Delhi Police Special Cell arrested Popular Front of India (PFI) Delhi unit President Parvez Ahmed and Secretary Illiyas, in connection with their role in orchestrating anti-India protests at Shaheen Bagh, reports ANI.
This development comes after the Enforcement Directorate had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against notorious radical Islamic organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) for instigating and funding anti-Hindu Delhi riots in Delhi. The two office bearers of radical Islamic organisation PFI, president Parvez and secretary Ilyas, were on Thursday arrested for questioning by the Delhi Police. The two members of the PFI were reportedly taken into custody on charges of hatching a conspiracy to incite riots in northeast Delhi.
Interestingly, the ED has also seized a tab from PFI’s Delhi unit president Parvez Ahmed which it claimed has records of a chain of conversations between him and AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh. Mohammad Parwez Ahmed was reportedly also in regular touch with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh and several Congress leaders including Udit Raj.
The investigations had revealed that the senior PFI functionaries have admitted to certain transactions linking the outfit to the funding of anti-CAA protests in the capital and some other places. The agency had also questioned several people connected with PFI at its Delhi headquarters and found evidence of collection of Rs 120 crore, at least Rs 50 crore of which came as cash donations for which the source was not disclosed. The PFI is headquartered at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi.
The ED officials said that two-thirds of all the deposits are kept in cash at PFI’s headquarters in G-78, Shaheen Bagh, Delhi. Reportedly, the local handlers connected to the radical Islamic organisation collected cash from their respective areas all across the country and travelled to Delhi to deposit it at the organisation’s headquarters.
The ED has questioned office-bearers of PFI and another outfit linked to it, Rehab Foundation of India (RFI). The ED had interrogated Parvez Ahmed, RIF trustee Shahid Abookacker, PFI Delhi secretary Abdul Muqeet, RIF general secretary Remiz Muhammed, PFI national secretary Anis Ahmed, RIF secretary Afsel Chandrankandy and PFI’s national headquarters accountant KP Jaseer.
The central probe agency has also filed a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Tahir Hussain. His alleged links with the Popular Front of India (PFI) are also being investigated. The role of Aam Aadmi Party leader Tahir Hussain in the brutal murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) employee Ankit Sharma and also inciting riots in the Delhi has now been under scanner.
Earlier, a report of UP State Intelligence has revealed the role of Bhim Army and PFI in orchestrating simultaneous violence in Aligarh and Delhi. Several PFI members have been arrested or booked for violence during anti-CAA protests, more than a hundred such arrests have been made in Uttar Pradesh alone. A couple of arrests have been made in Assam and Tamil Nadu, while several cases against the organisation’s activists have been registered in Kerala and Rajasthan.
