PFI activists in touch with AAP and Congress, HQ in Shaheen Bagh, says ED official
The ED officer also revealed that the PFI president of Delhi, Mohammad Parwez Ahmed has been in regular touch with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh and several Congress leaders including Udit Raj.
Popular Front of India (PFI), which is under the scanner for alleged anti-national activities and fanning violence during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in a couple of states including Uttar Pradesh, has its headquarters in Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, where hundreds of millions of rupees are deposited for funding its activities, said an ED official privy to the agency’s investigation into the organization.
The official, who didn’t wish to be named, also revealed that the PFI president of Delhi, Mohammad Parwez Ahmed has been in regular touch with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh and several Congress leaders including Udit Raj.
The sensational revelations come on the last day of campaigning for Delhi Assembly elections, scheduled for Saturday.
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The official claimed that the investigations so far have revealed that Parwez Ahmed was not only participating in anti-CAA protests but was in regular contact with AAP’s Sanjay Singh through “personal meetings”, “phone calls” and “WhatsApp chats”.
The official further said that Mohammad Parwez is part of over 100 WhatsApp groups, including “Unification of Muslim Leadership” and “Bheem Army Top-100”.
The ED official quoted above also revealed that around Rs 120 crore was deposited in 73 bank accounts linked with the PFI and its associates in 17 different banks and the majority of the contributions were made in cash.
The official said that two-thirds of all the deposits are kept in cash at PFI’s headquarters in G-78, Shaheen Bagh, Delhi. Local handlers collect cash from their respective areas all across the country and travel to Delhi to deposit it at the organisation’s headquarters, the official alleged.
The Union home ministry is currently considering recommendations made by the Uttar Pradesh and the Assam governments to ban the PFI.
Several PFI members have been arrested or booked for violence during anti-CAA protests, more than hundred such arrests have been made in Uttar Pradesh alone. A couple of arrests have been made in Assam and Tamil Nadu, while several cases against the organisation’s activists have been registered in Kerala and Rajasthan.
On December 4, 2019, the home ministry had sought information from all states about cases registered against PFI activists from November 2016 to November 2019 for anti-national activities.
