The Uttar Pradesh Police launched a crackdown on activists of the Popular Front of India (PFI), arresting 108 for their alleged involvement in large-scale violence during the anti-CAA and NRC protests in December last. Earlier, the UP Police brass claimed to have sent a report to get the PFI banned.
Addressing mediapersons in Lucknow on Monday, officiating DGP Hitesh Chandra Awasthi and Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said the arrests were made from different parts of the state during a special drive. The arrests are in addition to the 25 persons netted earlier in 18 districts.
“This is just the beginning, we will get to the roots of the outfit. A probe is also underway into their financial dealings. We are in touch with Central agencies and sharing inputs with them. UP is the first state to take this kind of action against the PFI,” Awasthi told reporters.
Giving details about those arrested in the last four days, DGP Hitesh Chandra Awasthi said that 14 PFI men were held from Lucknow, three from Sitapur, 21 from Meerut, nine from Ghaziabad, six from Muzaffarnagar, seven from Shamli, four from Bijnore, 20 from Varanasi, five from Kanpur, 16 from Bahriach, and one each from Gonda, Hapur and Jaunpur.
Asked whether the police got any inputs on the PFI’s financial transactions from Enforcement Directorate (ED), the DGP said, “We are collecting evidence and are in constant touch with the ED and other agencies.”
In December 2019, the then DGP OP Singh had sought a ban on the PFI, suspecting the outfit’s complicity in state-wide violent protests against the CAA and NRC. The ban was sought after PFI’s Uttar Pradesh head Wasim and 16 other activists were arrested for masterminding violence during the protests in Lucknow.
The PFI was formed in 2006 in Kerala as a successor to the National Democratic Front (NDF). Security agencies claimed that its leaders were been groomed in the ideology with that of another banned outfit SIMI.