The Delhi Police on Monday booked the Popular Front of India (PFI) under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in Southeast Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh.
The development comes after Delhi Police’s Special Cell unit along with district police conducted raids across six districts in the city last week and nabbed 30 people allegedly linked with the PFI.
The Government has already declared the PFI, Rehab India Foundation (RIF), All India Imams Council (AllC), National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation (NCHRO) and other organisations as “unlawful associations”.
According to the FIR, Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora vide a gazette notification dated September 29, declared and notified some addresses in Shaheen Bagh, Abdul Fazal Enclave and Jamia Nagar as being used for the purposes of carrying out unlawful activities of PFI and its associates or affiliates.
“Even after the said prescription and notification, reliable information has been received that certain leaders, members and associates of the referred unlawful associations, in continuation of their unlawful activities, are secretly conspiring to disrupt public order with the ultimate objective of targeting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India,” the FIR stated.
“The leaders, members, and associates of the proscribed unlawful association/s are, in continuation of their unlawful activities, conspiring further to cause massive disruption of public order by promoting communal enmity and for the purposes, are mobilising supporters for spreading incitement at various places of worship,” it further stated.
According to a senior police official, based on the information, a case under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) 9f the IPC along with Section 10 of the UAPA, has been registered at Shaheen Bagh police station.
“In order to unearth the conspiracy, to prevent deterioration of public order and to curb the intended unlawful activities by the leaders, members and associates of the said proscribed organisations. All these matters will be investigated and the culprits will be caught,” police stated.
Earlier, last week, the Centre banned PFI and several of its associates/fronts for five years under the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, accusing them of having “links” with global terror groups like ISIS and Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and involvement in radicalization.
The PFI was accused of indulging in “disturbing” the communal and secular fabric of the country and “posing a grave threat” to national security by advancing its radical ideology and calling for the establishment of political Islam in India besides allegedly carrying out targeted killings of Hindu activists.
The PFI, the Home Ministry alleged, is encouraging and trying to enforce a terror-based regressive regime, continue to propagate anti-national sentiments and radicalizing a particular section of society to create disaffection against the country, aggravating activities that are detrimental to the integrity, security and sovereignty of the country.
Besides PFI, the associated outfits banned under the UAPA include the Rehab India Foundation, Campus Front of India, All India Imams Council, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation, National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.
With the ban, the PFI joins a dubious club of 43 proscribed outfits notified by the Union Home Ministry, including Communist Party of India (Maoists), Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizbul Mujahideen, Al Badr. global terror groups Al Qaeda and ISIS, Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a host of Khalistani terror groups like Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) and several insurgent groups of the Northeast.