The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating the "acquisition" of some foreign assets, including a bar-cum-restaurant in Abu Dhabi, by Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders after the seizure of some documents in recent raids on its members in Kerala as part of a money laundering case, the agency said on Saturday.
The raids were carried out on December 8 at the residences of Shafeeque Payeth, a member of the PFI and its linked outfit Social Democratic Party of India at Peringathur in Kannur; Abdul Razak B.P., PFI divisional president of Perumpadappu, Malappuram; Ashraf M.K., alias Tamar Ashraf/Ashraf Khader, a PFI leader based in Muvattupuzah, and the office premises of Munnar villa vista project at Mankulam in Munnar, the ED said in a statement.
‘Bd to disrupt raids’
It said the PFI attempted to "disrupt the search operations", but the agency officials, assisted by Central Reserve Police Force personnel, seized "incriminating documents, digital devices and evidences related to foreign funding and acquisition of properties abroad."
The Kerala Police had said on the day of the searches that they registered a case against some PFI activists for allegedly trying to create trouble during the ED raids in Muvattupuzha.
The ED said the seized documents "indicate about the money laundering activities of the PFI through various projects in Kerala, including the Munnar villa vista project which is being built by the PFI leaders to launder proceeds of crime generated in India and abroad." "Acquisition of foreign properties by the PFI leaders, including a bar and restaurant in Abu Dhabi, has come to the notice of the directorate and it is under investigation," it said.
PFI general secretary Anis Ahmed, on the day of the raids, had issued a video message claiming the ED action was aimed at "harassing" them and the organisation will fight this through "legal and democratic means".
The ED had carried out similar raids on the PFI in the past too.
The Islamic organisation was formed in 2006 in Kerala and is headquartered in Delhi. The central probe agency has been investigating the PFI's alleged "financial links" on charges of fuelling the recent anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in the country, the riots in Delhi that took place in February last year and a few other instances.
