The Enforcement Directorate made this claim in its chargesheet against members of the PFI and its student wing, the Campus Front of India (CFI).
The Popular Front of India (PFI) collected cash from Gulf countries through illegal hawala transactions and through remittances that were never deposited in the bank account of the organisation, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged. The ED also said that PFI appointed members for the alleged collection of the funds. As per the allegations, PFI had collected 50,000 United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED) against a target of collecting AED 12.5 lakh (valued at Rs 2.5 crore in Indian currency at the current exchange rate) by August 7 last year from Abu Dhabi. The ED made this claim in its first chargesheet against five office bearers of the PFI and its student wing, the Campus Front of India (CFI), including CFI’s arrested National General Secretary KA Rauf Sherif, in connection with a money laundering probe in February this year. The ED in its chargesheet alleged, "During his questioning, Sherif admitted that PFI collects funds in Gulf countries where PFI has appointed members in their District Committee Executives (DECs), who approach people like business entities, businessmen and general public, and that funds are mainly collected in cash." The financial probe agency said, "The ED also seized a list during the searches in which it was revealed that a target of AED 12.5 lakh (around Rs 2.5 crore at the prevailing exchange rate) was fixed for collection of funds from Abu Dhabi and that out of which 4% of the target (about AED 50,000) was collected till August 7, 2020." Connecting the foreign funding link, the ED claimed, "These documents corroborate the voluntary submissions of Sherif and establish the fact that PFI has been collecting funds from Gulf countries such as UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain etc." The ED also alleged that Sherif's statement that in the Indian Committee of PFI, there are certain leaders, who coordinate with the work of the DEC in Gulf countries and that PFI has "accountants to manage their funds to show them as funds from legal sources". ED further alleged that the probe has revealed that overseas fund collections are not deposited in any of the bank accounts maintained by PFI. The ED alleged that further during the course of search at the PFI's premises, the agency seized a document, in which PFI has responded to the allegations of money laundering and has stated on record that it is their "established policy not to accept foreign funds for its activities, and it has been successful in adhering to this policy without fail". "This establishes the fact that funds collected by PFI functionaries settled or working abroad are being sent to India through illegal channels such as hawala or through remittances from Gulf countries to members or sympathisers of PFI and its related organisations in India through other underground or illegal channels," the ED alleged. The PFI is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with charges of money laundering. The ED had earlier claimed that the PFI has received funds to the tune of Rs 100 crore through illegal channels. Sherif was arrested by the ED on December 12, last year when he was allegedly trying to flee to Oman. The ED case was primarily registered in 2018, taking the 2013 Narath PFI armed training case as the predicate offence. Later, the case registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police against Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan and three others last year was included as part of the money laundering case against PFI. Siddique Kappan was arrested by UP police while he was on the way to Hathras case to meet the family of Dalit woman raped and murdered. Read: ‘What crime did my husband do?’ Siddique Kappan’s wife joins protest demanding release
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