KOZHIKODE: The Popular Front of India (PFI) has alleged that Kerala Police have not taken any action yet on the letter written by the jail authorities in Uttar Pradesh asking them to verify the telephone numbers they had forwarded months ago.
Members of PFI Anshad Badarudeen and Firoz Khan were arrested by the UP Police in February 2021 on charges of subversive activities. They moved the court seeking permission to allow them to contact their relatives over phone.
“They approached the court after the police refused permission to contact the families. The jail authorities said as per the jail manual, the phone numbers inmates are contacting should be verified by the authorities concerned,” said PFI state president C P Muhammad Basheer.The jail authorities relented only after the court’s intervention.
“The authorities said they wrote letters to the district police chiefs concerned in Kerala in April. They claimed that they had even reminded the Kerala Police twice, but there was no reply,” he said.The PFI leader said they are not sure about the veracity of the UP jail authorities’ claim. “But this is the excuse they gave when the case came up for hearing recently. So, we request Kerala Police to expedite the process if there is any such request to verify the phone numbers of the members of the families,” Basheer said.
The families of the PFI activists are planning to submit a memorandum to the chief minister, requesting his intervention in the issue. Anshad is from Pathanamthitta and Firos from Vadakara.” “Anshad and Firos had contacted their families on one or two occasions. Jail authorities have assured them that the family members can contact them once there is a clearance from Kerala Police,” Basheer said.
The PFI leadership claims that their workers were picked up by the UP Police while they were passing through the state on a train. “They had gone to Bihar for organisational work,” Basheer said.He alleged that the UP Police are perturbed by the organisational and legal activities carried out by the PFI in North Indian states. “We were involved in the legal fight in many mob lynching cases in North India,” Basheer said.