STF searches PFI, CFI Delhi offices

The Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh police on Sunday searched three Delhi locations related to Popular Front of India (PFI) and its students wing as part of investigation in a case of alleged funding to incite caste violence in the backdrop of the gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman in Hathras in September 2020, said senior police officials.

Additional superintendent of police (ASP) of STF’s Gautam Buddh Nagar unit Rajkumar Mishra said the searches were carried out at three locations, including PFI’s Delhi unit office and its student wing Campus Front of India’s (CFI) Shaheenbagh office. He said the third location is a private office associated to these two organisations.

Mishra said the STF conducted searches after procuring search warrant from a Mathura court on the basis of information extracted from the CFI’s general secretary Rauf Shareef, who was arrested from Trivandrum airport in Kerala on December 12, 2020 after a look-out notice by UP police.

He said Rauf was taken on custody remand and interrogated about the sources from where the two organisations received funds. He said several incriminating documents have been seized from the three places and its analysis was on. He said STF has been investigating the matter after taking over the case on October 22, 2020.

Earlier, the UP police had registered an FIR at Maat police station of Mathura after arrest of four people, including a journalist, who allegedly have links with the PFI and its associate body, on October 5, 2020.

Rauf’s name had surfaced in information extracted from them, following which the ED registered an FIR of money laundering against them after finding they had received huge amounts of money in their bank accounts through suspicious transactions.

The ED probe also hinted that Rauf was involved in generating funds from abroad and using the same to create tension and incite violence in the country.