KOCHI: The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against Campus Front of India leader Rauf Sherif, Malayali journalist Siddique Kappan and three others at a Special Court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases in Lucknow.
In the chargesheet, ED claimed that Rauf and other Popular Front of India (PFI) and Campus Front (CFI) members collected funds overseas which were allegedly used for anti-CAA protests and Delhi riots. The chargesheet named Athikur Rahman, Masud Alam and Mohammad Alam, besides Rauf and Kappan.
The central agency is probing the money laundering aspect behind the case registered by the Uttar Pradesh police against Kappan and three others for alleged attempt to disrupt social and communal harmony after the Hathras gang-rape incident. ED had arrested Rauf last December from the Thiruvananthapuram airport while Kappan was arrested by the UP police en route to Hathras from Delhi in October.
The chargesheet said Rauf, a native of Anchal, was involved in conspiracy along with PFI and CFI members settled overseas to fraudulently remit funds raised through bogus transactions to acquire the proceeds of crime. “Rauf and his PFI/CFI associates also received and possessed the said proceeds of crime in their bank accounts as well as in the form of cash.
The fraudulent remittance of funds in the manner was in furtherance of a larger conspiracy to utilise the proceeds of crime in funding anti-CAA protests and Delhi riots, and more specifically in the purported visit of PFI/CFI members by putting to use proceeds of crime for disturbing communal harmony, instigating riots and spreading terror,” the chargesheet stated.
The chargesheet also said that Athikur, Masud, Kappan and Alam were travelling to Hathras to utilise the proceeds of crime and that they have committed offences of money laundering. Interestingly, the ED finding is that the Rs 5,000 transferred to the account of Athikur’s account by Ahamed Shibili, an associate of Rauf, is part of the proceeds of crime.
Agency wants Rauf to be shifted to Lucknow ED has filed a petition at the PMLA court in Kochi to transfer Rauf to the Lucknow PMLA court’s custody as the chargesheet is filed there. Rauf is currently lodged at the Ernakulam Sub Jail.