The Enforcement Directorate is working overtime to expose the rabidly Islamist organisation – Popular Front of India. The PFI’s role in further communal tensions, organising riots, forced conversions, and radicalisation of Muslim youth is abundantly known. The PFI came into the focus after the misinformed and motivated anti-CAA violence took place in the country from December 2019, and which culminated with the anti-Hindu North-East Delhi riots of February-March 2020. On Thursday, the ED upped the ante against the extremist organisation with nationwide raids against it in 26 locations spread across nine states.
Now, it has come to light that unaccounted cash was kept at the organisation’s Shaheen Bagh office, which would have most probably been used for funding anti-India and anti-Hindu activities in the National Capital. Already, initial investigation by the ED has revealed that over Rs 120 crore was credited in 73 bank accounts linked to PFI and its related entities. The ED also reportedly found that crores were received by PFI including foreign contributions of Rs 50 lakh through three foreign entities.
Reported by TFI already, the scrutiny of transactions revealed that Rs. 120.50 crores were credited in these accounts and most of it was withdrawn rather instantly or within a couple of days—suggesting that the money was gliding across hands as riots were funded heavily by PFI and foreign entities during the anti-CAA agitation across the country, particularly in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
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The Enforcement Directorate has also been told by an accountant of the PFI that unaccounted money was brought in from Karnataka and Kerala and was coordinated by a PFI member of Delhi. In fact, signalling towards the finesse with which the PFI conducts its anti-national activities, the ED in January this year submitted a note to the Union Home Ministry saying there “is a direct correlation between the dates of deposits/withdrawals of money from the bank accounts of PFI and those of demonstrations against the CAA”.
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“It has been noticed that Rs1.04 crore were deposited in 15 bank accounts of PFI (10) and Rehab India Foundation (5) during the period starting from 04.12.2019 till 06.01.2020. The deposits were in form of cash and IMPS using mobile and deposit amounts varies from Rs 5,000 to Rs 49,000. The amounts have been kept below Rs 50,000 in order to [not] disclose the identity of depositor,” the note said.
The Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating the PFI for money laundering and its role in Delhi and UP riots over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), not to mention its alleged conspiracy in the riots of Hathras is paving the way for Modi government to ban the organisation. With the mounting evidence against PFI emerging rapidly, the Modi government is all set to come down hard on it any moment now.