ED points to AAP, Cong leaders' links with PFI

On Thursday, the last day of campaigning for the 70-member Delhi Assembly polls, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said protests against the new citizenship law and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) had been funded by the Popular Front of India and even the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress leaders were in touch with the PFI.

The ED had last month claimed to have exposed the PFI-Rehab Foundation India (RFI) nexus that provided Rs 120 crore during the CAA protests in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh and in UP.

A senior ED official said Delhi PFI president Mohammad Parwez Ahmed was in regular touch with AAP leader Sanjay Singh through "personal meetings, phone calls and WhatsApp chats", and several Congress leaders, including Udit Raj.

Parwez was part of over 100 WhatsApp groups, including "Unification of Muslim Leadershipa and "Bheem Army Top-100", the official said.

Meanwhile, AAP national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked the ED why it didn't arrest Singh yet despite having proof of his links with the PFI. "Why is the ED only submitting and leaking the report when they could send Singh to jail for the next 20 years," Kejriwal said.

The ED official said the probe report had been shared with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Last month, said the official the ED shared the information on Rs 120 crore deposited in 73 accounts linked with the PFI and its associates in 17 banks, where the majority of contributions were in cash.

About two-thirds of all deposits were kept in cash at PFI's headquarters in G-78, Shaheen Bagh, the official claimed.

Following the violent clashes over the CAA in Assam and UP in December, both the state governments had urged the MHA to ban the PFI. In UP, the police arrested 108 PFI members for violence during CAA protests. A couple of arrests were also made in Assam and Tamil Nadu.

On December 4, the home ministry sought information from states about cases registered against PFI activists between November 2016 and November 2019 for anti-national activities.

The ED in its report to the MHA last month said Rs 120.5 crore was credited in 73 bank accounts. Of this, 27 accounts were operated by the PFI, nine by the RFI. The 37 accounts were in the names of certain individuals and entities.

The ED has sent teams to western UP to probe details of people who deposited the amounts in the bank accounts of the PFI and the RFI.
-IANS