ED Claims 'Money Link’ Between PFI & CAA Protests, Group Denies

The agency has allegedly found that at least Rs 120 crore were deposited in bank accounts in western Uttar Pradesh.

Smoke rises out of a burning vehicle during a protest against the CAA in Muzaffarnagar on 20 December.

(Photo: PTI/Altered by The Quint)

The Enforcement Directorate has found that the recent violent protests in Uttar Pradesh against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) had a "financial link" with the Kerala-based outfit PFI, official sources cited by PTI claimed on Monday, 27 January.

The agency, which is probing the Popular Front of India (PFI) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since 2018, has allegedly found that at least Rs 120 crore were deposited in bank accounts in western Uttar Pradesh after the Act was passed by Parliament late last year.

It is suspected that these funds were used by PFI affiliates to fuel anti-CAA protests in various parts of UP, sources claimed, citing the findings of the Enforcement Directorate probe report.

They added that the ED has shared these findings with the Union Home Ministry.

Raises Serious Apprehension: RS Prasad

However, PFI’s General Secretary Mohd Ali Jinnah strongly condemned news reports regarding the organisation’s purported financial link to instigate CAA protests.

“Reports attribute 73 bank accounts to PFI and state that Rs 120 crore was transferred through these accounts to fund anti-CAA protests,” he was quoted by ANI as saying.

Meanwhile, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad responded to the issue saying:

“Law enforcement agencies are doing their job, I need not make any comment. But if there is suspicious nature of transaction on a particular day, then obviously it raises serious apprehension and protests that are organised don’t look voluntary.”

Ravi Shankar Prasad, as quoted by ANI

The UP Police had also recently sought a ban on PFI, days after its complicity was suspected in the statewide violent protests against the contentious citizenship law.

Nearly 20 people had died during these protests, wherein allegations of police excesses and brutality were also levelled.

According to sources cited by PTI, the ED found that funds deposited in banks were also routed from some foreign shores and were sent in the accounts of certain investment firms.

National Investigation Agency's FIR and charge sheet against the PFI had formed the basis for the ED to file a PMLA case against it.

The PFI was formed in 2006 in Kerala as a successor to the National Development Front (NDF).

(With inputs from PTI and ANI.)