In a statement, Popular Front of India Chairman O M A Salam denied the allegations made by the Enforcement Directorate against the organization and its leaders in its formal announcement on Friday.
The Enforcement Directorate made several serious allegations against the Popular Front of India in a release posted on the agency’s website on May 13, 2022. The allegations discuss a Supplementary Prosecution Complaint filed against the two leaders of the organization who were recently arrested by the agency. The Popular Front has denied all of these charges.
“The ED has fabricated a narrative against Popular Front by combining completely unrelated instances.” “The current news release is nothing more than a rehash of the same lie concocted to harass the Popular Front, its leaders, and its members,” the PFI chairman stated.
The ED conducted searches on the homes and offices of several Popular Front members in Kerala in January.
“Nothing was discovered during the raids, and the entire operation was politically driven and part of the BJP government’s witch-hunt against the organization. Despite knowing that the PMLA case and all the claims were manufactured, the Popular Front and its members have cooperated with all inquiries as a lawfully operating organization,” Salam added.
The following arrests of PFI member Abdul Razak BP and Kerala State Executive Member M K Ashraf, according to the PFI, are part of the continuous harassment. “They were independent merchants who committed no crimes other than being Muslims and collaborating with Popular Front humanitarian initiatives.” The ED Press Release makes no mention of the Munnar Villa Vista Project or the Darbar Restaurant in the UAE.
Moreover, Salam said, “ED is well aware that its story is not going to hold up in a court of law, so the press release is intended to tarnish the image of the organization. It also indicates that ED wants to continue the ongoing harassment by prolonging the proceedings and the detention of the innocents the agency has arrested. The Popular Front will not be intimidated by these cases. This is not the first time the agency has targeted a lawfully working organization. The agency has turned itself into a tool of harassment by those in power and has done the same thing with many other political parties and leaders. The Popular Front will confront the harassment in a legal and democratic way.”
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