Four individuals were charged with further crimes by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on 3 August in connection with illegal and anti-national actions by the outlawed Popular Front of India (PFI) in Patna. The fresh chargesheet has been filed in a special NIA court in Bihar’s Patna district against Md Tanweer, Md Aabid, Md Belal and Md Irshad Alam, all residents of the East Champaran district.
According to the NIA, the four PFI cadres were involved in planning violent crimes by procuring weapons and ammunition and spreading their organisation’s extremist ideology and dangerous agenda. They are facing prosecution under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and Arms Act, 1959.
A total of 15 perpetrators, including the four mentioned in the chargesheet, have been apprehended thus far for encouraging the outfit’s unlawful operations and directing illicit cash from abroad to its members and the accused parties in the case.
Investigations conducted by the agency revealed that Md. Irshad Alam is part of a criminal racket that, along with other PFI workers plotted to attack and murder a young person from a particular community in order to sow the seeds of terror and communal animosity.
The statement read, “Md Tanweer and Md Abid had already terror hardware for carrying out the hate crime and had handed over the same to one of the arrested accused, Yaqub Khan. Yaqub is a PFI master trainer of weapons and tactics and had conducted multiple arms training sessions for furthering the banned outfit’s violent and unlawful activities.”
The initial case was lodged against 26 people on 12 July of last year at the Phulwarisharif Police Station in Patna. On 22 July the same was taken over and again registered by NIA. The NIA issued a chargesheet against four people in the case on 7 January. The inquiry is still underway.
Notably, on 22 September 2022, the NIA with other probe agencies conducted a large-scale midnight operation termed “Operation Octopus” on the premises of PFI across the country, on charges of terror funding and money laundering. The raid resulted in the detaining of at least 100 of its leaders and activists.
On 28 September the Government of India declared the outfit an “unlawful association” and temporarily banned it for five years under the UAPA Act. The former reasoned that the latter was “prejudicial to the integrity, sovereignty and security of the country” and cited its connection with terror groups like Students Islamic Movement of India, Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.