New Delhi: The NIA on Friday arrested a member of the banned organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) for allegedly harbouring an accused involved in Kerala's infamous palm-chopping case, an official reported. The agency claimed that C Shafeer had sheltered Savad, one of the suspects, after he went into hiding following the July 2010 attack on retired Professor TJ Joseph in Muvattupuzha.

"NIA investigations have revealed that Shafeer was himself purportedly involved in several violent acts for PFI," an agency spokesperson said in a statement. Savad was caught from Kannur in January this year by the agency after being on the lam for 13 years, the spokesperson said.

"A hit team member of PFI, he was chargesheeted in January 2021 in the case, which was one of the earliest such incidents in India reflecting the ideology of violent extremism being pursued by the organisation," it said.

Nineteen people have so far been convicted for various offences under the IPC and UA(P) Act in the case, which was filed after a professor's palm was chopped off for the alleged ridiculing of Prophet Mohammed in a Malayalam question paper prepared for the internal examination of BCom students at Newman College, Thodupuzha, Idukki district, Kerala.
(With PTI inputs.)