Money laundering: ED raids 5 premises of PFI in State

Chennai

All over the country, at least 26 premises in nine states linked to the PFI including its chairman OM Abdul Salam and Kerala chief Nasarudheen Elamarom, were raided by the ED sleuths.

Searches were carried out in three locations in Chennai, Tenkasi and Madurai. Premises in Bengaluru, Darbhanga and Purnea (Bihar), Lucknow and Barabanki (Uttar Pradesh), Aurangabad in Maharashtra, Kolkata and Murshidabad (West Bengal), Jaipur, Shaheen Bagh area in Delhi and Kochi, Malappuram and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala were covered by the agency under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

While ED sources claimed that the action was aimed at collecting evidence in multiple money laundering cases clubbed into one, PFI and its chairman OM Abdul Salam called the raids a gimmick and an attempt to divert attention from the farmers’ agitation.

It is believed that the ED is already probing PFI’s suspected financial link in fuelling the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests in the country. “Simultaneous raids were carried out by the ED at the houses of PFI leaders across the country. We believe this to be a politically motivated action from the part of the agency. Such raids usually happen in our country whenever the government in power comes under the pressure of popular anger and it wants to divert national attention from it.” “Narendra Modi government has always used national agencies against its political opponents and to crush dissent in the country to the point that the credibility of these agencies has come under question,” the organisation said in a statement.