Bihar PFI case: ED begins money laundering probe into 'terror module'

Bihar PFI case: Police said they recovered two pamphlets written in English -- 'India 2047: Towards rule of Islamic India' and 'Popular Front of India, 20 February 2021' after searches were conducted against Jallauddin and Parvez.

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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has launched a money laundering probe into a recent "terror module" unearthed by Bihar Police with the arrest of three people for their alleged links with extremist organisation PFI and their plans to indulge in "anti-India" activities, officials said on Tuesday. Mohammad Jallauddin, a retired Jharkhand Police officer, and Athar Parvez were arrested on July 13 from the Phulwari Sharif area of state capital Patna while Nuruddin Jangi was arrested three days later from Lucknow by Uttar Pradesh ATS, on the request of Bihar Police.

"They (Jallauddin and Parvez) were teaching locals how to use swords and knives and also instigating them for communal violence. They have links with PFI," the Patna police had said. Several objectionable documents pertaining to Islamic extremism have been seized from their possession, they said.

Police said they recovered two pamphlets written in English -- 'India 2047: Towards rule of Islamic India' and 'Popular Front of India, 20 February 2021' after searches were conducted against Jallauddin and Parvez.

The UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had said that Nuruddin "confessed" during interrogation that he came in contact with the Popular Front of India (PFI) Darbhanga district president in 2015 and has been associated with the organisation ever since.

The ED, officials said, has taken cognisance of this Patna police FIR and has clubbed in its wider probe being conducted by it against PFI, its members and linked persons.

The agency will question the accused arrested by police and probe to find the funds transacted by them and if "proceeds of crime" were generated by them through money laundering, the officials said.

The ED has been investigating PFI's alleged "financial links" on charges of fuelling the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in the country, the Delhi riots that took place in February, 2020, alleged conspiracy in the Hathras (a UP district) case of alleged gangrape and death of a Dalit woman and a few other instances.

The Islamist organisation was formed in 2006 in Kerala and is headquartered in Delhi. The agency has filed two charge sheets against PFI and its office bearers before a special PMLA court in Lucknow. The agency, last month, attached bank deposits of more than Rs 68.62 lakh of PFI and its "front" organisation Rehab India Foundation as part of these probes.