The ban on the Fashionable Entrance of India beneath the Illegal Actions (Prevention) Act comes within the wake of over 1,300 prison circumstances registered throughout the nation by regulation enforcement companies towards PFI members and recoveries from them suggesting alleged terror hyperlinks, sources within the safety institution instructed The Indian Categorical Wednesday.
In response to a doc of the Ministry of Dwelling Affairs (MHA), these circumstances have been registered, amongst others, beneath provisions of the UAPA, Indian Penal Code and Arms Act.
These embody offences associated to the killing of leaders related to Hindu organisations, organising suspected terror camps, alleged radicalisation of youth and hyperlinks with international terrorist organisations such because the Islamic State.
In response to the MHA doc, the recoveries from PFI members through the years embody paperwork on find out how to make IEDs utilizing simply out there materials, a brochure and CD associated to Mission 2047 – a doc containing materials on changing India into an Islamic State – handheld marine radio units, pen drives with pro-IS movies, ammunition, weapons, even bodily training information books.
The PFI and its entrance organisations, the doc states, have presence in 17 states and the organisation “inspired” its cadres to “undertake actions that have been prejudicial to the upkeep of peace and concord between completely different non secular teams”.
The PFI workplace in New Delhi: Locked and sealed. PTI
Officers mentioned some activists of PFI, significantly from Kerala, had joined the Islamic State and had participated in terror actions in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. A few of them have been additionally killed in motion by safety forces in these battle theatres, officers mentioned.
In 2017, Kerala police mentioned that six alleged PFI activists – they have been recognized as Abdul Ghayoom, Abdul Manaf, Shabeer, Suhail and his spouse Rizwana, Safwan – had joined the Islamic State in Syria. Safety companies later learnt that Manaf and Shameer had been killed in Syria combating alongside the IS.
What can comply with
The declaration of the PFI and its associates as “illegal associations” permits regulation enforcement companies to freeze financial institution accounts, seize belongings of those organisations – briefly, choke their funding and actions.
Additionally that yr, the NIA filed a chargesheet towards eight males from Kerala for being members of the IS and propagating its actions. It recognized one among them as P Safwan, a graphic designer with Thejas, mentioned to be the PFI mouthpiece.
PFI members practice in Kottayam, Kerala, in 2010. PTI file
The MHA notification banning PFI additionally mentions its alleged hyperlinks with the IS and the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). The NIA is presently probing 19 circumstances towards the PFI and its leaders.
The MHA doc mentions the killing of a number of Hindu leaders the place PFI activists are suspected to be concerned: the homicide of Praveen Nettaru (July 2022) ; RSS employee Sanjith (Kerala, 2021); Nandu (Kerala, 2021); V Ramalingam (Tamil Nadu, 2019); Abhimanyu (Kerala, 2018); Bibin (Kerala, 2017); Sharath (Karnataka, 2017); R Rudresh (Karnataka, 2016); Praveen Poojari (Karnataka, 2016) and Sasi Kumar (Tamil Nadu, 2016).
The PFI got here beneath the highlight in 2010 when its activists allegedly chopped off the hand of a Kerala professor, T J Joseph, accusing him of blasphemy over a query he had requested in an examination paper.
Safety personnel converse with Fashionable Entrance of India (PFI) employees protesting towards the raid of NIA on the PFI workplace, in Chennai (PTI photograph)
The then UPA authorities handed over the case to the NIA which arrested a number of PFI activists and chargesheeted them. 13 folks have been convicted within the case whereas 11 are standing trial. The important thing accused, nonetheless, fled the nation.
The MHA doc additionally mentions restoration of arms and explosives from a coaching web site in Narath (Kannur) by the Kerala police in April 2013. The case was transferred to the NIA and 41 PFI activists have been convicted in 2016.
“The PFI covertly organised coaching workout routines and military-like drills the place contributors have been skilled to make use of power towards sure non secular teams, which have been perceived by the outfit as enemies of Islam,” the MHA doc states.
It additionally mentions a case associated to a coaching camp organised by the PFI in Nizamabad in Telangana this yr. The case is now being probed by the NIA. “The accused have been organising camps for imparting coaching to commit terrorist acts and to advertise enmity between completely different teams on the premise of faith,” the NIA mentioned in a press release following its searches.
Safety personnel stand guard outdoors the RSS workplace in Kochi on Wednesday. PTI
“Interrogation of the accused revealed that the PFI would determine Muslim youth, particularly from poor or center class, who have been later instilled with anti-Hindutva ideology and imparted coaching. The coaching concerned the usage of swords and nunchucks,” the MHA doc states.
Amongst recoveries allegedly made by companies from suspected PFI activists is an IED-making brochure, seized from one Mohammed Nadeem in Barabanki, UP.
The doc mentions a diary recovered by the Enforcement Directorate from one M Mohammed Ismail that allegedly “revealed a few sinister plot of PFI… to create a civil war-like state of affairs in India”.
The doc flags PFI’s funding and claims that over 100 financial institution accounts of the PFI don’t match with the monetary profiles of the account holders. This, it states, has led to the withdrawal of the registration standing of PFI beneath sections 12A & 12 AA of the I-T Act.
In June, the ED hooked up belongings that included 23 financial institution accounts of the PFI and 10 financial institution accounts of the PFI’s entrance organisation Rehab India Basis (RIF).
“Quantity of greater than Rs 60 crore have been deposited within the accounts of PFI which incorporates money deposits of greater than Rs 30 crore since 2009. Equally, round Rs 58 crore have been deposited within the accounts of RIF since 2010,” the ED mentioned in a press release.
“This has been achieved as half of a bigger prison conspiracy of PFI and its associated entities to boost funds inside the nation and overseas to hold out varied illegal actions which have resulted within the registration of quite a few FIRs/complaints towards them for fee of scheduled offences over time and the submitting of chargesheets and conviction of its members/office-bearers,” the ED mentioned.