New Delhi: Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has attached 23 bank accounts of PFI having collective balance of Rs. 59,12,051 and 10 bank accounts of PFI’s front organization Rehab India Foundation (RIF) having collective balance of Rs. 9,50,030 in the ongoing money laundering investigation against Popular Front of India (PFI) & its related organizations. A total amount of Rs. 68,62,081 has thus been provisionally attached under Section 5 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
ED investigation revealed that huge amount of monies including cash from questionable sources have been received by PFI and RFI. An amount of more than Rs. 60 Crore have been deposited in the accounts of PFI which includes cash deposit of more than Rs. 30 Crore since 2009. Similarly, around Rs. 58 Crore have been deposited in the accounts of RIF since 2010.
Further, investigation by ED revealed that PFI, in active collusion with other associated accused persons has indulged in laundering of proceeds of crime in terms of Section 3 of PMLA, 2002. Proceeds of crime mobilized in the form of cash have been deposited in its bank accounts by falsely projecting them as cash donations from sympathizers / members.
Similarly, in order to obliterate the fund trail and circumvent the regulatory rigour, proceeds of crime were mobilized in the form of cash and deposited by PFI leaders in the bank accounts of various individuals and immediately thereafter these funds were transferred from bank accounts to PFI’s bank account.
Investigation also revealed that PFI was covertly mobilizing funds through well-organized network in Gulf countries as part of criminal conspiracy and these proceeds of crime were secretly and clandestinely sent to India through underground & illegal channels and by way of foreign remittances into the bank accounts of sympathizers / office bearers / members and their relatives / associates in India and thereafter these funds were transferred to the bank accounts of PFI, RIF & other individuals / entities.
In this way, the proceeds of crime have been placed, layered & integrated and therefore projected as untainted money in the bank accounts of PFI as well as RIF. This has been done as a part of a larger criminal conspiracy of PFI & its related entities to raise funds within the country and abroad to carry out various unlawful activities which have resulted in the registration of numerous FIRs / complaints against them for commission of scheduled offences over time and the filing of chargesheets & conviction of its members / office-bearers.
ED has already filed Prosecution Complaint on 06.02.2021 & Supplementary Prosecution Complaint on 06.05.2022 against members / office-bearers of PFI & Campus Front of India before the Hon’ble Special PMLA Court, Lucknow.
The Hon’ble Court has taken cognizance of the offence of money laundering against all the accused persons.
