NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has intensified the investigation into the banned outfit -- Popular Front of India -- and its members who may be secretly conspiring to disrupt public order and subsequently arrested two more people under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
According to a senior Delhi Police official, an FIR was registered against two PFI members under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups), along with section 10 (Penalty for being member of an unlawful association, etc) and 13 (Punishment for unlawful activities) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act at Khajuri Khas police station.
The two accused people were identified as Israr Ali Khan and Mohd. Samoon. Pertinently, this is the second FIR lodged by the Delhi Police against the members of outlawed PFI. “The arrested duo is accused of planning and conspiring against the government and the country,” the senior official said.
Earlier, the police had arrested four PFI members and a local Court sent them to three days’ police custody for interrogation.The government had on September 28 declared the PFI and its eight affiliates as an “unlawful association” for five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The ban came shortly after the NIA, ED and various state police forces carried out a coordinated nationwide crackdown on the PFI.Delhi Police also participated in the joint coordinated raids and had on September 27 apprehended over 30 people for questioning. A day later PFI was banned by the government.
On September 29, the Delhi Police registered the first FIR against the PFI and its associate organisations. The FIR initially mentioned a Gazette notification issued by Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora in which he declared three places in southeast Delhi’s Jamianagar and Shaheen Bagh as being used for carrying out unlawful activities of PFI and its associates.
But even after the said proscription and notification, the police said that reliable information has been received that certain leaders and members of the referred unlawful associations, in continuation of their unlawful activities, are secretly conspiring to disrupt public order with the ultimate objective of targeting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.
It added that leaders and members of the unlawful association are, in continuation of their unlawful activities, conspiring further “to cause disruption of public order by promoting communal enmity in the area.”