Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Popular Front of India (PFI) said the raids carried out by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Kerala against three persons associated with the PFI is part of continuing vendetta politics.
“These raids and the claims in its press release issued afterwards are unfounded, unethical and ill-motivated”, Anis Ahmed, PFI General Secretary, said in a statement issued on Sunday.
Deploying ED to snoop on genuine Muslim businessmen, big and small, while allowing all huge business frauds to flourish, is clearly a communal agenda of the Sangh Parivar. The ED that had no interest to investigate black money dealings of Kerala BJP leaders worth 400 crores is now going after legitimate Muslim businesses, said Ahmed.
He further said while the Uttar Pradesh State Assembly election is approaching, creating further communal divide through another round of anti-Muslim propaganda is the plan of RSS and BJP. For them, targeting PFI and projecting the organisation in a bad light is an immediate political compulsion. They are misusing central agencies including ED in their desperate attempt to slow down the increasing popularity being enjoyed by the Popular Front among the masses. The uncompromising stand upheld by the organization against the anti-national role of the RSS and the anti-people policies of the BJP government is well established in the public domain.
Popular Front had challenged the months-long illegal proceedings of ED against the organisation before the Delhi High Court and ED has sought four weeks time to file their counter during the last week’s hearing. Recent ED raids at residences and a villa project site is totally against the spirit of the arguments put forth by both sides.
The entry of ED officials into houses without following basic norms left aged family members traumatized and hospitalised. Without a woman officer in the ED team, they trespassed into the house that had only female household members inside. As a cover-up to these shameful violations, the ED has now come up with strange allegations of “black money” against innocents.
These recent raids and connecting their business with the organisation is nothing but a clear case of harassment.
Anis Ahmed stated that the organisation will continue its democratic and legal fights against the moves by ED and other agencies. He reiterated that neither the people’s movement Popular Front of India nor its members would be driven back from their mission of standing for civil rights and fighting communal fascist forces.
