Under terror shadow, Popular Front booked for money laundering

Wednesday 09 May 2018 11:38 AM IST

by PTI

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ED books Popular Front for terror links and funding

PFI leader Naseeruddin Elamaram addresses a meeting of the organisation in Kozhikode. File photo

New Delhi: Kerala-based "radical" outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) has been booked for criminal charges of money laundering by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), officials said on Tuesday.

The move comes days after BJP president Amit Shah had said that if the party forms government in Karnataka, it would recommend a ban on the outfit which allegedly operates in some parts of the poll-bound state too.

The central probe agency has filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), based on a 2013 FIR of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and a subsequent chargesheet. Officials said the agency will look into the alleged role of the "radical" outfit PFI with respect to suspected terror funding and possible creation of assets by using "tainted" funds.

The anti-terror probe organisation, NIA, had submitted a report on the PFI to the Union Home Ministry a few months back claiming that the group has been involved in terror activities, including running terror camps and making bombs, and it was a fit case to be banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The cases which the NIA cited to claim PFI's alleged involvement in terror acts are: chopping of a professor's palm in Kerala's Idukki district, organising a training camp in Kannur from where the NIA allegedly seized swords, country-made bombs and ingredients for making IEDs, murder of RSS activist Rudresh in Bengaluru and the plans to carry out terror attacks in South India by involving another outfit, Islamic State Al-Hindi.

The NIA had filed its case against the PFI in 2013, after taking it from the state police, for allegedly organising a terror camp in Kannur in that year. It had also filed a chargesheet against 22 accused in the case relating to alleged seizure of weapons from an arms training centre of the PFI in Kerala.

PFI's national executive council member P Koya had earlier told PTI that the NIA never approached the outfit to know about its activities and had refuted NIA's allegations. The outfit reportedly has presence in 23 states and is strongest in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

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