Sibal denies CAA links, claims PFI money transferred to his banks a/cs is Hadiya case fees
An Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe has revealed that the controversial outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) was “financially” backing the recent violent anti-CAA protests in Uttar Pradesh. However, the PFI denied the claim.
According to news agency PTI, the ED , which is probing the PFI under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since 2018, has found that at least Rs 1.04 crore were deposited in bank accounts in western Uttar Pradesh after the Act was passed by Parliament in December last year. The sources said a total amount of Rs 120 crore, credited to bank accounts linked to the PFI, are under the ED’s scanner.
Incidentally, there was no Press release issued by the Ed to confirm the report. The PFI rubbished the charges and said the ED has not even contacted them regarding the same.
The PFI was formed in 2006 in Kerala as a successor to the National Democratic Front (NDF) and was suspected to have shifted its headquarters to Shaheen Bagh in the national Capital over a decade ago.
Amid news reports suggesting that the PFI had paid lawyers such as Kapil Sibal, Dushyant Dave and Indira Jaising as part of its efforts to fund anti-CAA protests, the PFI as well as Sibal rejected the charge.
Sibal said the payments he received from the PFI had nothing to do with anti-CAA protests, and were made for his legal services offered in the Hadiya case. The Congress leader said the ED has released a statement analysing the bank accounts of the PFI in which “my name has been mentioned as a recipient of Rs 77 lakh”.
“The first bill was raised on August 4, 2017. Last bill on March 8, 2018. All payments were received before March 2018,” Sibal said.
Fellow lawyer Indira Jaising, on the other hand, “completely and vehemently” denied receiving “any money” from the PFI “at any point of time”. Jaising also denied receiving any money from anybody in connection with the anti-CAA protests.
On money transfers made to some prominent lawyers, the PFI said, “The truth is that transfers were made in 2017 as lawyer fees for these advocates for the Hadiya case... Attributing a fees transfer that happened in 2017 as a funding for 2019 CAA protest is totally absurd and exposes the intention to defame the Popular Front.”
“The PFI has stated it multiple times that we fully comply with the law of the land and the allegation of Rs 120 crore transferred from the Popular Front’s accounts just before the CAA protests is totally baseless,” the PFI said in a statement.
The dubious deposits were either made in cash or through the immediate payment service (IMPS) and a number of such instances were seen in Uttar Pradesh, where the maximum number of violent anti-CAA protests were reported to have taken place, sources said, adding the withdrawal of money from the bank accounts linked to PFI and its related entities had a “direct correlation” with the violent demonstrations against the CAA.
It is suspected that these funds were allegedly used by the PFI affiliates to fuel the anti-CAA protests in various parts of Uttar Pradesh and other locations, the sources said.
Claiming the allegations levelled against it were unfounded, the PFI said, “We are confident that the fate of this series of allegations will also be like the ones before, which could never be proved.”
There were instances of about 80-90 money withdrawals from one bank account in a day during the stated period. The ED had also shared these findings with the Union Home Ministry’s internal security division after the latter sought a report on funding of protests.
Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh police had sought a ban on the PFI after its alleged complicity was suspected in the Statewide violent protests against CAA. Nearly 20 people had died during these protests.
The ED probe had further revealed that the funds deposited in banks were also routed from foreign shores and sent to the accounts of certain investment firms.
A National Investigation Agency FIR and chargesheet against the PFI formed the basis for the ED to file the PMLA case against the organisation.
The PFI statement further said, “PFI strongly condemns the news reports that are published in various news channels regarding Popular Front’s financial link to instigate the CAA protest. Firstly, the news channels have attributed the report to Enforcement Directorate through some ‘unnamed sources’ but the ED has not contacted our organisation or issued nay such official statement regarding the allegations.”
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Law enforcement agencies are doing their job, I need not make any comment. But if there is suspicious nature of transaction on a particular day then obviously it raises serious apprehensions and protests that are organised don’t look voluntary.”