ED questions PFI, RFI members over anti-CAA protest funding

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New Delhi, Jan 29 (IANS) Two members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Rehab Foundation India (RFI) were questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday over the alleged funding of Rs 120 crore for the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in several parts of the country. The ED has also sent multiple teams to Uttar Pradesh to identify the people who deposited cash into the bank accounts of the PFI and the RFI.

According to the ED officials, PFI's state president Mohammed Parvez Ahmed and RFI's Shahid Abu Bakr appeared for questioning at the financial probe agency's headquarters in south Delhi's Khan market area.

The ED has served summons to the PFI and RFI offices located in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh and Jamia area on Monday.

The ED official said that they will be questioned about the funds received in the bank accounts of these organisations through cash transactions and through NEFT or IMPS mode of transaction.

The official further said that the agency will also question them about when and why the amounts to the tune of Rs 120 crore was transferred to the associate branches of the organisations in last one month.

The ED in its report to the Ministry of Home Affairs has informed that the PFI and RFI through its 73 bank accounts transferred money to the tune of Rs 120 crore to support anti-CAA and NRC protest across the country.

An ED source said that it has also sent multiple teams to Uttar Pradesh to identify the people who deposited cash in the bank accounts of these organisations.

The source said that the ED team will also collect the CCTV footages from the banks, where they deposited the cash on the basis of the transaction history of those accounts.

According to ED officials, in several districts of western Uttar Pradesh like Hapur, Shamli, Bahraich, Bijnor, Dasna and others, amount worth Rs Rs 41.5 crore was deposited in the bank accounts associated with the PFI and the RFI.

The PFI and several other senior lawyers, including Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who is said to have received Rs 77 lakh through bank cheque, has rejected the ED's charge. Sibal in his defence has said that he received the amount as litigation fee for appearing in Hadiya-Shafia Jahan marriage case in the Supreme Court. And he received the amount from August 2017 to March 2018, much before the CAA became the law in 2019.

--IANS

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