ED conducts searches at 7 locations in four states linked to SDPI
Thursday’s raids come weeks after the agency arrested SDPI president Moideen Kutty K on March 3 and carried out searches at several locations on March 6
NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday carried out searches at seven locations in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Kerala in its money laundering charges against Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political arm of the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI), officials familiar with the development said.
The searches were carried under Prevention of Money Laundering Act or PMLA at premises in Mettupalaiyam, Coimbatore, Arcot and Vellore in Tamil Nadu, Bhilwara and Kota in Rajasthan, West Bengal capital Kolkata, and Kottayam and Palakkad districts in Kerala.
Thursday’s raids come weeks after the agency arrested SDPI president Moideen Kutty K alias MK Faizy, 55, from Indira Gandhi International airport on March 3 on the grounds that the party carries forward the ideology and agenda of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) and is funded by it.
PFI and its eight affiliate organisations were banned by the ministry of home affairs under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA, on September 28, 2022, after a nationwide crackdown by ED and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) led to arrests and the recovery of purported incriminating documents from offices and homes of the outfit’s office-bearers. The Centre alleged the outfit, whose members are largely based in Kerala, was fuelling radicalisation and involved in terror-funding.
The SDPI was founded in 2009 and is also registered as a political party with the Election Commission of India.
But ED has alleged that SDPI was nothing but the political front of PFI and was “funded and controlled” by the latter.
It has also alleged a “deep-rooted” nexus between the two organisations, with overlapping memberships of their cadres, involvement of PFI office bearers in the setting up of SDPI, and the utilisation of each other’s assets.
“SDPI is a front organisation of PFI through which PFI has been carrying out its anti-national and criminal activities, even while overtly taking a stand that PFI is a social welfare organisation,” ED has said.
“PFI used to control, fund and supervise the activities of SDPI; SDPI was majorly dependent on PFI for its day-to-day functions, policy making, selecting candidates for election campaign, public programs, cadre mobilisation, and other related activities,” ED had said.
