NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed two chargesheets against 68 Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders, cadres and members in two separate cases in Kochi (Kerala) and Chennai (Tamil Nadu). The charges against them include "conspiring to carry out acts of terror and violence with the ultimate objective of establishing an Islamic Rule in India by 2047."
According to NIA sources, the chargesheets filed Friday in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the two states where PFI is active, relate to separate "criminal conspiracies" relating to creating a wedge between people of different communities through radicalisation of impressionable Muslim youth, providing them with training in handling of weapons, and raising funds for carrying out acts of terror and violence with the ultimate objective of establishing an Islamic Rule in India by 2047.
With these, the total number of chargesheets filed by NIA against PFI cadres this month has gone up to four. The first such chargesheet was filed in Jaipur on March 13 and the second in Hyderabad on March 16.
The Kerala PFI case was registered in September 2022.
The chargesheet was filed in the Special Court for NIA Cases, Ernakulam, against the PFI as an organisation and 58 other accused persons. NIA had arrested 16 of the accused after taking over the case in 2022, while the others were arrested earlier by Kerala Police. More than 100 locations across the state were raided in connection with the case. The NIA has also attached 17 properties as they were identified as ‘proceeds of terrorism’ and frozen 18 bank accounts of the accused during the course of its investigations.
In a similar case registered and investigated by NIA's Chennai branch in Tamil Nadu, the agency filed a chargesheet against 10 accused.
NIA investigations allegedly revealed that to achieve their objectives, PFI had established various wings & units including the "physical and arms training wing."
The PFI was allegedly using its various campuses, facilities and infrastructure to impart arms training to selected cadres in the guise of physical education, Yoga training, etc.