Money Laundering Case: Delhi Court Sends 5 PFI Members to Police Custody

A Delhi court has remanded five alleged key functionaries of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), arrested in a money laundering case, to six-day police custody, after the ED alleged they were engaged in generating proceeds of crime through terror activities.
The accused were apprehended by the ED from Tihar jail, where they were detained in a terror case under investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

As per the ED, the key arrested operatives include A S Ismail, a founding member of PFI, Md Shakif, its Karnataka president, Anis Ahmed, the national secretary until 2020, Afsar Paasha, the national secretary during the organization’s unlawful declaration, and E M Abdul Rahiman, the current national vice president. They were also associated with the proscribed outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

Presented before Additional Sessions Judge Chanderjeet Singh, the ED sought a 10-day custody, asserting the direct involvement of the accused in activities linked to the proceeds of crime.

Represented by Special Public Prosecutors Naveen Kumar Matta and Manish Jain, along with advocate Mohd Faizan Khan, the anti-money laundering agency submitted that the cash deposits and bank transfers made by them were not genuine transactions. The ED claimed that these transactions were orchestrated by PFI to portray unaccounted cash, raised through unknown and suspicious sources, as untainted and legitimate.

The ED’s investigation purportedly uncovered that PFI raised substantial funds through its thousands of active members in Gulf countries and elsewhere in a well-organized and structured manner.

The ED asserted, “Hence, it is evident that funds collected by PFI abroad are remitted through hawala/ underground channels and through remittances sent to the accounts of members/ activists/ office bearers of PFI and other related organizations, and funds received from overseas are concealed from the government authorities, and the statutory compliance was not done by PFI and its related organizations.”

The Popular Front of India was banned by the Centre due to its alleged links to terror activities and its association with global terrorist organizations like the ISIS.

The ED initiated the case based on an FIR lodged by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for alleged terrorism-related activities punishable under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The ED alleged that the accused and other members associated with the organization collected funds through donation, hawala, banking channels, etc., which were used for unlawful activities and various offences.

The federal anti-money laundering agency also stated that its probe revealed bogus cash donations and bank transfers. It was alleged that funds were transferred to India from abroad through a clandestine channel under a conspiracy hatched by the office bearers of the PFI over several years, as per the ED’s claims.