ED finds PFI ‘financial link’ to protests in Uttar Pradesh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 27

As part of its probe into a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) today claimed that it has found evidences that the recent violent protests in Uttar Pradesh against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) had a “financial link” with the Kerala-based outfit Popular Front of India (PFI).

According to sources, the ED, which has been investigating the PFI under the PMLA since 2018, has found that a sum of at least Rs 120 crore was deposited in bank accounts in western Uttar Pradesh after the Act was passed by Parliament late last year.

The sources, quoting the findings of the ED probe report, said these funds were suspected to have been used for fuelling anti-CAA protests in various parts of UP and a report in that regard has been shared with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

The UP Police had also recently sought a ban on the PFI. Around 20 persons had died during these protests.

The ED reportedly found that the funds were also routed from foreign shores into the accounts of certain investment firms.

The anti-terror probe agency NIA’s FIR and chargesheet against the PFI had formed the basis for the ED to file a PMLA case against the outfit. The PFI was formed in 2006 in Kerala as a successor to the National Democratic Front (NDF).