On Monday, a Court in Delhi extended by three days the ED custody of SDPI national president M K Faizy in an alleged case of money laundering related to the proscribed Popular Front of India (PFI).

Additional sessions judge Chander Jit Singh extended the custody on EDs plea seeking extension of custody for five days.

On March 4, the Court sent Faizy to custody on the plea of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking his interrogation & confronting him to unearth the money trail in the case & conspiracy.

The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), founded in 2009 & headquartered in Delhi, is alleged to be the political front of the now banned PFI.

In its application seeking 10 days of his custody, the ED alleged Faizy was on the run.

The accused opposed the application, saying the funds were transferred before the PFI was declared unlawful.

"How could accused know that the government was going to declare it unlawful so that could have stopped the transaction," the defence counsel had said.

Faizy, according to the sources, was held on the night of March 3 from the Delhi international airport under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The ED has alleged SDPI to be the "political front" of PFI, which was banned by the Centre in September, 2022 for being an "unlawful association".

Prior to the ban, simultaneous raids & enforcement action were conducted against the PFI by multiple probe agencies, including the ED, NIA & other state police teams.

The SDPI, however, denies any such link & calls itself an independent outfit.

According to the SDPI, Faizy was among the founder leaders of the organisation & was elected its national president in 2018.

He is a Islamic scholar & a political observer who served as a Masjid Imam in the 1980s, the SDPI portal said.

The organisation, according to officials in the investigative agencies, has a "strong" influence in various pockets of Kerala & Karnataka & some other southern states.

The ED, as part of its probe against the PFI in 2022, had linked Faizy with a Kerala-based PFI leader named Abdul Razak B P who is alleged to have transferred Rs 2 lakh to the SDPI national president as part of the fund raising activities of his organisation.

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