NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has arrested four members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, a senior Police official said on Tuesday. The accused were identified as Md Shoaib, Habib Asgar Jamali, Abdul Rabb and Warish.
Later in the day, a Delhi court sent all the accused to three days’ police custody for interrogation. The court passed the order after police produced the four before it and sought their remand, claiming their custody was required to unearth the larger conspiracy.
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. This ban came shortly after the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and various state police forces carried out a coordinated nationwide crackdown on the PFI.
The FIR against the alleged members, registered on September 29, initially mentions 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.
“Even after the said proscription and notification, 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,’’ the FIR read.
It added that leaders and members of the unlawful association/s are, in continuation of their unlawful activities, conspiring further “to cause disruption of public order by promoting communal enmity in the area.