Delhi riots: ED books Tahir Hussain, PFI for money-laundering

New Delhi, March 11

The Enforcement Directorate has booked suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain, Islamist group PFI and some others on charges of money-laundering and alleged funding of the recent riots in Delhi, officials said on Wednesday.

They said a criminal case against Hussain, facing charges of killing an Intelligence Bureau official during the riots in northeast Delhi last month, had been filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the central probe agency.

Similar charges have also been pressed against the Popular Front of India (PFI) which is already facing a separate PMLA probe.

Hussain at present is in the custody of Delhi Police.

The officials said the federal agency had taken cognisance of a clutch of FIRs filed by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch to probe the alleged money laundering and routing of illegal funds by Hussain, PFI and others to purportedly sponsor the communal riots that killed 53 people and injured over 200.

Tahir Hussain’s 3 associates arrested      

Three associates of Tahir Hussain have been arrested in connection with the communal riots in northeast Delhi, the police said on Wednesday.

Abid, a resident of Dayalpur, and Mohd Shahdab and Rashid Saifi, both from Nehru Vihar, were arrested by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police on Tuesday, they said.

They were with Hussain on February 24 during the violence in the district, the police said.

The Crime Branch on Monday arrested Hussain’s brother Shah Alam in connection with the riots. Three other people, who were sheltering Alam, were also arrested.

Hussain was arrested by the Delhi Police last week after a court here dismissed his plea seeking to surrender before it in connection with the killing of Intelligence Bureau (IB) official Ankit Sharma during the violence over the new citizenship law. PTI