PFI MEMBERS SEEK MORE TIME TO ANSWER ED

New Delhi: Representatives of Kerala-based PFI and NGO Rehab India Foundation on Wednesday met ED officials to seek more time for its office bearers to appear before the probe agency in connection with a money laundering probe being conducted against them, officials said. PFI is accused of funding anti-CAA protests in the country.

New Delhi, Jan. 29: Officials of the PFI and a linked NGO on Wednesday met ED officials to seek more time for its office-bearers to appear before the federal probe agency, officials said. A group of four officials, including a legal representative of the Kerala-based Popular Front of India and Rehab India Foundation, arrived at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office here around 10.30 am.

“No one is appearing. We are going to meet ED officials to seek more time,” a PFI official said. The ED had issued summons to seven office-bearers of the PFI and Rehab India on Tuesday in connection with a money laundering probe against them. They were asked to depose on Wednesday.

The development came in the backdrop of the ED finding that the recent violent protests in Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country against the CAA had an alleged “financial link” with the PFI and the organisation terming it as “baseless.”

“The PFI has stated multiple times that we fully comply with the law of the land and the allegation of `120 crore transferred from the Popular Front's accounts just before the CAA protests is totally baseless and the people who are levelling these allegations should prove these claims,” the organisation had said in a statement issued on Monday.