By our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached 35 immovable properties worth Rs 56.56 crore in connection with the money laundering probe against the banned Popular Front of India (PFI).
The outfit had more than 13,000 active members in Singapore, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates , the agency said here on Oct 18.
The ED probe is based on various cases registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other enforcement agencies.
“Investigations revealed that the office bearers , members and cadre of PFI were conspiring and raisinf/collecting funds from within India and abroad through banking channels, ‘hawala’, donations etc. for committing and financing terrorist acts across India”, the agency added.
According to the ED, the outfit raised funds to the tune of Rs 94 crore from different parts of the country and abroad. The money was deposited in its 29 bank accounts in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telengana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bihar West Bengal, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur.
It has so far arrested 26 accused persons linked to the proscribed outfit and submitted nine prosecution complaints in the case from February 2021 to May 2024. The Ed said that the “eal objectives of PFI include formation of an organization for carrying out an Islamic movement in India through Jihad, though PFI masquerades itself as a social movement”.