Arrested youth party leader of Popular Front of India funding unrest: ED

Two weeks ago, the ED had carried out a nationwide raid on offices and residences of top leaders of the Popular Front of India (PFI).

An arrested member of the student wing of the Popular front of India is alleged to be a key fund-raiser for subversive activities in the country, said the Enforcement Directorate in its remand report. The agency said Rouf Shareef, national secretary of Campus Front, received more than Rs 2 crore in his three bank accounts from west Asian countries and was using the same to fund unrest in the country. The ED was allowed two-week custody of Shareef by a court in Kochi.

Teh accused is said to have received more than Rs 2 crore in his three bank accounts from west Asian countries. (HT Photo)

Shareef was arrested from Thiruvananthapuram airport on Saturday following a tipoff from intelligence agencies. The Uttar Pradesh police had also issued a lookout notice against him on November 18 for allegedly funding unrest in Hathras. The ED said he was planning to flee the country and evaded summons a couple of times on the pretext of coronavirus pandemic.

The UP police said he was in frequent touch Atiq-ur-Rehman and AP Masood and funded their trip to Hathras, where a 19-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped and cremated in the dead of the night bythe state police. Hailing from Kerala, both were arrested when they were planning to visit Hathras along with journalist Siddiq Kappan. A police team from UP is expected to question him in a couple of days.

When Rouf Shareef was taken to his home in Anchal in Kollam district (south Kerala), Campus Front workers staged a protest and tried to block the ED vehicle carrying him. Later more police personnel reached the spot to remove protesters. Campus Front leaders said he was arrested for supporting the ongoing farmers’ strike and intelligence agencies were being used to silence dissenters.

Two weeks ago, the ED had carried out a nationwide raid on offices and residences of top leaders of the Popular Front of India (PFI). The PFI, a radical outfit, is often considered as an offshoot of the banned Students’ Islamic Front of India (SIMI). When Muslim cleric Abdul Nasser Madani, an accused in Bangalore and Coimbatore blast cases, founded the Islamic Seva Sangh on the lines of RSS after Babri mosque demolition, many joined it.

Later when Madani was in jail in connection with Coimbatore blasts, these leaders formed the National Development Front. Later it merged with Manitha Neethi Passarai of Tamil Nadu and Forum for Dignity, a Karnataka-based outfit, to form the Popular Front of India (PFI). Now the PFI claims that it has units in 22 states. Most of its frontline leaders are from Kerala.