ED registers money laundering case against PFI

Kerala-based "radical" outfit PFI has been booked under criminal charges of money laundering by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for its alleged links with terror activities and funding, officials said today.

The move has come days after BJP President Amit Shah had said that if the party forms government in Karnataka, it would recommend a ban against the outfit which allegedly also operates in some parts of the poll-bound state.

The central probe agency has filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), based on a 2013 FIR of the NIA and a subsequent chargesheet.

Officials said the agency will look into the alleged role of the "radical" outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) with respect to suspected terror funding and possible creation of assets by using "tainted" funds.

The anti-terror probe organisation, National Investigation Agency (NIA), had submitted a report on the PFI to the Union Home Ministry a few months back claiming that the group has been involved in terror activities, including running terror camps and making bombs, and it was a fit case to be banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The cases which the NIA cited to claim PFI's alleged involvement in terror acts are: chopping of a professors palm in Kerala's Idukki district, organising a training camp in Kannur from where the NIA allegedly seized swords, country- made bombs and ingredients for making IEDs, murder of RSS leader Rudresh in Bengaluru and the plans to carry out terror attacks in South India by involving another outfit, Islamic State Al-Hindi.

The NIA had filed its case against the PFI in 2013, after taking it from the state police, for allegedly organising a terror camp in Kannur in that year.

It had also filed a chargesheet against 22 accused in the case relating to alleged seizure of weapons from an arms training centre of the PFI in Kerala.

PFI's national executive council member P Koya had earlier told PTI that the NIA never approached the outfit to know about its activities and had refuted NIA's allegations.

The outfit reportedly has presence in 23 states and is strongest in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.