New Delhi: With the arrest of one person who allegedly channelled funds to the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) in the garb of political donations, raids in four states and a letter to the Election Commission seeking details of SDPI’s expenses, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is tightening the noose around banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI).
Founded as a political party in June 2009, the SDPI is alleged to be the political arm of the PFI, which was banned by the Union government in 2022 for five years.
On Thursday, as the ED was carrying out raids across two locations each in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Rajasthan and one in West Bengal, its senior officials also wrote to the ECI, seeking details of SDPI donations and expenditure. “ECI has been approached to analyse if funds spent by SDPI, a frontal political organisation of PFI, was directly in tune with donations it received from PFI or cadres linked to it in the form of cash donations,” an ED official said.
“A call on whether the party would be made an accused as per section 70 of the PMLA that describes offences of money laundering by any company will be taken in due course of investigation,” the official added.
On the same day, after the completion of the raids, it also arrested scrap dealer Wahidur Rahman, allegedly a former physical trainer for PFI cadres, in Coimbatore.
These developments also came in the wake of the ED’s arrest of SDPI national president Moideen Kutty K., also known as M.K. Faizy, on 3 March from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport. The ED alleged that Faizy was a member of the PFI till 2009, when he was appointed as general secretary of the SDPI after its formation.
The agency also alleged that being the national president of the SDPI, he was aware and responsible for its functioning, collection of funds and overall affairs.
In a statement earlier this month, the agency reiterated its allegations that the PFI had created the SDPI to support its objective of carrying out an “Islamic movement in India through jihad”. It also said that the PFI was directly controlling the political functioning and decision-making process of the SDPI.
ThePrint reached SDPI for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
In a post on X Tuesday, the SDPI said, “Accusing the BJP-led central government of misusing investigative agencies to suppress dissent, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) has strongly condemned the arrest of its national president, M.K. Faizi, by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).”
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Scrap dealer with links to PFI
In September 2022, after central agencies, including the ED and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), carried out coordinated raids at premises linked to top PFI leaders and arrested them, petrol bombs were hurled at the residence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionaries in Coimbatore.
The Tamil Nadu police registered five cases related to these incidents in Coimbatore City and rural districts and arrested several cadres of PFI, including Rahman.
He was charged under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) for his involvement in one of the attacks, which Tamil Nadu police said were carried out with the intention to create fear among the Hindu community and vitiate communal harmony between two religions.
The status of this case was not immediately clear. Tamil Nadu Police did not respond to ThePrint’s request for comment.
A scrap dealer by profession, Rahman was taken into custody by the ED Thursday from his Coimbatore residence.
An agency official said that scrutiny of SDPI bank accounts revealed that several individuals had transferred substantial funds to these accounts in the form of donations. However, a deeper scrutiny of the transactions established that an equal amount of funds were deposited into the bank accounts of donors by Rahman through cash deposits.
“The cash deposit slips obtained from the bank revealed that Wahidur Rahman was the one depositing these amounts in cash in the accounts of various other persons who have in turn transferred the same to SDPI bank accounts,” an agency official said.
ED officials further alleged that Rahman was involved in training PFI cadres in different variations of blows, punches, kicks, as well as knife and stick attacks. The agency has long alleged that PFI has been imparting training of arms and ammunition to its cadres with the intention to promote enmity between different religions and carry out terrorist activities.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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