Raids at over 150 areas throughout 15 states, and 106 arrests of PFI (Popular Front of India) leaders and workplace bearers, this unmatched action versus the Islamic organisation was performed on Thursday. The advancement emerged following a well-coordinated operation in between the National Investigative Agency (NIA), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and anti-terror teams of a minimum of 10 state authorities.
This ‘midnight’ operation was thoroughly prepared and carried out under the watch of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The strategy to work out such an operation was started long back when names of PFI members emerged in numerous cases connected to riots, horror activities, horror financing and violence throughout the nation.
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The BJP-ruled states have actually been requiring a restriction on PFI. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath composed a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs to prohibit the Islamic organisation.
After numerous FIRs, arrests and findings by the investigative firms, the house ministry looked for a report from firms, consisting of the NIA and ED. Both the main firms had actually been examining a number of cases where PFI leaders and members have actually been called as implicated.
While the NIA’s probe was concentrated on the illegal activities of the criminal organisation, the ED has actually succeeded in learning the source of their financial resources. India Today has actually accessed the information of these cases by the ED and NIA based upon which the house ministry chose to start across the country action versus PFI leaders and members.
Cases versus PFI members by the ED
1. Money Laundering case versus PFI and its connected organisation
The ED examination into the financing of PFI exposed that a big quantity of cash, consisting of money from doubtful sources, had actually been gotten by PFI and RFI (Rehab Foundation of India). A quantity of more than Rs 60 crore has actually been transferred in the accounts of PFI, that includes money deposits of more than Rs 30 crore given that 2009.
Similarly, around Rs 58 crore has actually been transferred in the accounts of the RFI given that 2010.
Later, the company connected 23 checking account of PFI revealing a cumulative balance of Rs 59,12,051 and 10 savings account of PFI’s front company Rehab India Foundation (RIF) with a cumulative balance of Rs. 9,50,030 in the continuous cash laundering examination versus PFI and its associated organisations.
An overall quantity of Rs 68 lakh was connected by the ED.
The ED likewise exposed that PFI, in active collusion with other associated implicated individuals, delighted in the laundering of earnings of criminal offense by mobilising cash in the kind of money and by incorrectly forecasting it as money contributions from sympathisers.
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PFI had actually been supposedly mobilising funds through a well-organised network in Gulf nations as part of a criminal conspiracy. These earnings of criminal activity were clandestinely sent out to India through underground and unlawful channels and by method of foreign remittances into the savings account of sympathisers, workplace bearers, members and their loved ones in addition to partners in India.
Later, the funds were moved to the checking account of PFI, RIF and other people and entities. In this method, the profits of criminal offense have actually been positioned, layered and incorporated. Predicted as untainted cash in the bank accounts of PFI as well as RIF.
” This has actually been done as a part of a bigger criminal conspiracy of PFI & & its associated entities to raise funds within the nation and abroad to perform different illegal activities which have actually led to the registration of various FIRs and grievances versus them,” the ED had previously stated in its report.
2. PMLA case versus PFI members in Kerala
The ED submitted a case versus 5 workplace bearers and members of the PFI and its trainee wing, Campus Front of India. PFI leaders Abdul Razaq Peediyakkal alias Abdul Razak BP and Asharaf Khadir alias Ashraf MK who, in association with other PFI leaders and members, related to abroad entities for establishing a property task – Munnar Villa Vista Project (MVVP) at Munnar, Kerala The job was being established supposedly with an intention to wash cash gathered from foreign nations along with within the nation and to produce funds for PFI to fund its extreme activities.
” Investigation developed that ‘earnings of criminal activity’ in the kind of unaccounted and unusual money along with foreign funds were parked in MVVP and were predicted as untainted,” the ED had actually stated previously.
Abdul Razak BP, according to the ED, a veteran serving member of PFI and its associated entities, who likewise worked as PFI Divisional President for Perumpadappu, Malappuram, Kerala, was a crucial figure representing such organisations in the Gulf nations and was actively included and crucial in the fundraising activities of PFI in India and abroad.
He apparently moved around Rs 34 lakh from the UAE to RIF. He moved Rs 2 lakh to MK Faizy, who was the president of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), a political front of PFI.
” Investigation likewise exposed that he was associated with raising and gathering funds abroad and he moved around Rs 19 crore to India through underground and unlawful channels,” the firm stated.
” He was the owner of Darbar dining establishment in Abu Dhabi which functioned as a cash laundering front of PFI. To hide the laundering of earnings of criminal activity through Darbar dining establishment, he did not reveal the reality of ownership of Darbar dining establishment prior to the Government Authorities,” the company had actually discovered in the examination.
He got profits of the criminal offense of around Rs 48 lakh from his bro who was handling Darbar dining establishment in UAE’s Abu Dhabi. Another business owned by him is Tamar India Spices Pvt. Ltd. which was apparently utilized to wash profits of criminal activity.
Both Abdul Razaq BP and Ashraf MK. were detained by the ED and a charge sheet has actually been submitted versus them. Their declared partner, PFI member Anshad Badharudeen, who was apprehended by UP Police Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), together with PFI member Firoz Khan with improvised explosive gadgets, one 32- bore handgun and 7 live cartridges were taken from them.
These PFI members were supposedly preparing to form a terrorist group and gather lethal weapons and explosive gadgets to release attacks.
3. PFI’s participation in Hathras event, anti-CAA demonstrations and Delhi riots
The ED discovered PFI’s unlawful activities in anti-CAA demonstrations, prompting violence in the 2020 Delhi riots, social networks and posters associated with Babri Masjid, NRC and Uniform Civil Code and demonstrations over Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
The ED likewise discovered that PFI has actually formed district executive committees in UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and so on to raise funds. Targets are provided to people to gather money and move the exact same through hawala deals or camouflaged as real company deals.
The Chinese link in the Hathras Case
In the case of KA Rauf Sherif (PFI member and CFI nationwide basic secretary), the ED discovered that he got Rs 1 crore in the gui