New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Friday got six-day custody of five “key members” of the banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) in connection with money laundering.
The five accused — E.M.Abdul Rahiman, Anis Ahmed, Afsar Pasha, A.S. Ismail, Mohamed Shakif — were lodged in a jail following their arrest in a case being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
They were aware of the processes and activities connected with proceeds of crime and hence they were arrested under Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the ED informed the Patiala House Court.
All five held key posts with the PFI that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) banned last year, it added.
“By virtue of their position in PFI and their control over its bank accounts, they were actively involved in the concealment, possessions and acquisition of proceeds of crime raised in India and abroad as part of criminal conspiracy and by thereafter projecting such funds as untainted money,” the ED said in its remand note.
VIDEO | Five PFI members, arrested by the ED in connection with a money laundering case, were produced before a Delhi court earlier today. They were earlier arrested by NIA and were in Judicial custody. pic.twitter.com/u5yBWy5LW7
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 22, 2023
The anti-money laundering agency also submitted that it asked the PFI to furnish details of all its donations received in 2018-19 as part of the investigation into the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) filed in 2018.
The PFI tried to legitimise funds transferred into bank accounts by “sympathisers” as it deposited equivalent cash sums into their accounts and they returned the money in the outfit’s accounts, it alleged.
Verification showed that the donors were not financially capable of making the contributions, it added.
PFI treasurer P. Koya declined any fundings by overseas supporters and reiterated “established policy not to accept foreign funds for its activities”, it said, adding that “incriminating documents” seized from offices and premises of the PFI office bearers disclosed acceptance of foreign fundings in a “well-organised and structured manner.”
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The accused persons
Rahiman was one of the members of the outfit since its inception and had held various “important posts” at the state and national level such as the general secretary between 2007 and 2008 and the chairman from 2009 to 2012, according to the ED.
Along with other PFI leaders, Rahiman allegedly went on several trips to Turkey and various other countries in Africa and was authorised as a signatory in two bank accounts of the outfit.
He was the PFI vice-chairman and member of the national executive council at the time when the outfit was declared as an unlawful organisation, it said.
Ahmed served as the national secretary between 2018 and 2020 and was a member of the national executive council last year. The ED alleged that Ahmed served in “decision-making role in its activities and financial matters”.
While he was zonal president of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh between 2017 and 2019, Afsar Pasha was the national secretary of the outfit when it was declared unlawful. Pasha is said to be an authorised signatory of the PFI bank account used for money laundering.
The ED further alleged that Pasha took part in a jail bharo protest, which was related to communal riots, held by the outfit in Karanatak’s Mysuru in 2009
One of the founding PFI members apart from being president of North Zone between 2018 and 2020, Ismail like Anis Ahmed and Abdul Rahiman was a member of the PFI National Executive Council last year.
Ismail allegedly used to look after the implementation of the council’s decisions and the follow-up of such decisions. He too was an authorised signatory of a bank account of the outfit, the ED said in its remand note.
Shakif, according to the agency’s remand note, was president of the Karnataka unit between 2016 and 20. He, too, was a signatory to a PFI bank account.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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