The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday, March 17, said that they have filed two chargesheets against a total of 68 Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders, cadres and members in two separate cases in Kochi (Kerala) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu). The NIA filed the first chargesheet against the PFI members in Jaipur on March 13 and the second in Hyderabad on March 16.
An official said that Kerala PFI case was registered in September 2022 by the NIA related to criminal conspiracy allegedly “hatched by the PFI and its leaders and cadres to create a wedge between people of different communities through radicalisation of impressionable Muslim youth, training them in handling of weapons and raising funds for carrying out acts of terror and violence with the ultimate objective of establishing an Islamic Rule in India by 2047.”
The NIA, in its Kerala chargesheet, also included the killing of a Palakkad resident, Sreenivasan, who was hacked to death allegedly by armed PFI cadres. The NIA investigations had shown some of the accused in the PFI criminal conspiracy case (September 2022) to have been involved in the Sreenivasan killing too.
The accused in the two chargesheets filed on Friday, March 17, were charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Arms Act.
In the Kerala case, registered in September 2022, the chargesheet has been filed in the Special Court in Ernakulam, against the PFI. The NIA had arrested 16 of the accused after taking over the case in 2022, while the others were arrested earlier by Kerala Police.
The Kerala chargesheet has been filed after searches were conducted by the NIA at more than 100 locations across the state. The NIA also attached 17 properties as they were identified as 'proceeds of terrorism' and frozen 18 bank accounts of the accused during the course of its investigations.
The NIA alleged that the PFI was using its various campuses, facilities and infrastructure to impart arms training to selected cadres in the guise of Physical Education, Yoga Training etc. They also established a 'Reporters Wing' and 'Service Teams or Hit Teams' to eliminate their 'targets'. Whenever required, the PFI “pressed into service its loyal and highly trained cadres of their 'Service Teams', as 'executioners' of the orders pronounced by their parallel courts, called ‘Dar-ul-Qaza’.”
In a separate case registered and investigated by NIA Branch Office in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, NIA also filed a chargesheet against 10 accused. This case was also registered in September, 2022 to probe the criminal conspiracy, allegedly hatched by the PFI and its leaders.
The chargesheet, filed before the NIA Special Court Chennai in the Tamil Nadu case, named 10 accused, including Khalid Mohammed, the state vice president of PFI. This case was also registered in September 2022, when nine of the accused were arrested by the NIA.