KOCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) team, which arrested KA Rauf Sherif, the national general secretary of Campus Front of India (CFI), the student’s wing of Popular Front of India (PFI), on charges of money laundering, will examine several activists of the two organisations including Malappuram-based journalist Siddique Kappan, according to investigators.
It was found that Rauf funded the trip by PFI activists along with journalist Siddique Kappan to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, where a shocking rape and murder had happened, with an intention to disturb social harmony and incite communal riots. The investigation is in the preliminary stage and a large number of accused involved are to be examined, said sources.
The investigation agency earlier found the links of Mohammed Ilyas, general secretary of PFI, New Delhi, and Masood Ahmed, a CFI worker at Jamia Millia University, were suspected to have played roles in the northeast Delhi riots in February as part of the anti-CAA protests in this case. Masood Ahmed, CFI national treasurer, along with Ateequr Rahman and Aalam, all PFI workers, were arrested with Kappan on their way to Hathras on October 4 by the UP Police.
“Siddique Kappan lied in his statement that he did not know Ateequr Rahman even though Ateequr admitted that he had known Kappan for the past one year. They were travelling in a planned manner to Hathras and they had ulterior motives of disturbing social harmony and inciting communal riots,” according to a report submitted by ED before the Principal Sessions Court, Kochi.
The ED will move an application before the court seeking 15 days’ custody of Rauf, who is currently in judicial custody, for a detailed interrogation at the ED’s zonal office in Kochi. “The presence of the accused is inevitable for conducting further investigation in the case. Further, the investigation is in the preliminary stage and a large number of accused involved are to be examined. The digital evidence seized from Rauf during the course of investigation needs to be retrieved and extracted and he needs to be confronted with the evidence and facts of the case,” said a source.
Since the CFI has no bank account, all funds of the front were routed through the personal bank accounts of Rauf. The non-cooperative and evasive attitude of Rauf and his deliberate attempts to avoid appearing before ED and flee the country create further suspicion about his activities and involvement in money laundering activities, the source said.
Vinay Kumar, ED Assistant Director, New Delhi, is heading the investigation. The ED took up the probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on the case related to a terrorist camp organised at Narath in Kannur by a section of PFI and SDPI workers. Rauf, who was arrested on Saturday from Thiruvananthapuram airport, had received huge amounts of foreign remittances in his bank accounts during Covid-19 lockdown period. He was not in Oman, where he was working, in the period when the remittances were received but was in India.
ED to seek Rauf’s custody
The Enforcement Directorate will move an application before the court seeking 15 days’ custody of Rauf, the national general secretary of Campus Front of India, for a detailed interrogation at the ED’s zonal office in Kochi. Rauf is is currently in judicial custody.
Kappan was acting at the behest of Delhi riots accused, SC told
New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh Government has told the Supreme Court that detained journalist Siddique Kappan was going to Hathras upon instructions of Md. Danish, who is one of the accused in the Delhi riots case. In an additional affidavit, UP Government alleged that Kappan, along with three other accused, was headed towards Hathras in a planned manner to execute unlawful activities and disrupt peace by triggering class and caste conflicts in the state.
The affidavit stated that K A Rauf Sherief, national general secretary of Campus Front of India (CFI), the student wing of Kerala-based radical organisation Popular Front of India(PFI), was facilitating the movement. “It is most pertinent to mention that Delhi riots accused Md. Danish and Rauf Sherief were continuously in touch with Siddique Kappan and all other co-accused through cell phones which were recovered by police from the vehicle being used by the accused on the way to Hathras on October 5,” it adds.