The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has analysed more than 60 Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts linked to the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI), through which its functionaries and members were allegedly spreading communal hatred and targeting the Indian government and higher judiciary.
The data related to these social media accounts was downloaded or extracted in the presence of independent witnesses. “A thorough analysis of the downloaded data revealed several inflammatory and communal speeches made by the accused persons/PFI cadre on their social media handles. Similarly, multiple posts/videos were found opprobrious of the higher judiciary and the Government of India,” alleges the agency.
In the YouTube videos downloaded from the PFI’s official accounts, the accused persons, who were its national executive council (NEC) members, were seen “addressing large gatherings of people and provoking them against the Indian government by wrongful interpretations of government policies to create hatred against the entire State machinery, High Courts and the Supreme Court... and instigating the crowd towards violence against the persons belonging to a particular religious or political group”.
Before being banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on September 27, 2022, the PFI had its footprint in more than 20 States. On March 21, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal upheld the ban on PFI and its affiliates. The NIA has alleged that the outfit was developing a mass organisation on the pretext of a socio-political movement and intended to float a militia and generate resources for waging war against the Indian government to establish an “Islamic caliphate” in its place.
The agency found that the cadre-based outfit had units at the ground level and supervisory wings at the district, State and the national level. The PFI’s NEC was the supreme decision-making body for which selections were made by its national general assembly having representatives from each State in the proportion of one representative per 300 members.
“The ultimate and highly secretive objectives of the PFI and the means to achieve the same are enshrined in the document titled ‘India 2047: Towards Rule of Islam in India’, which was seized during the investigation in a case,” said a senior agency official.
As alleged by the NIA, the proposed stages to achieve the objective involved weapons training to the PFI cadre; selective use of violence to demonstrate strength and terrorise opponents; foment communal and social disharmony; and infiltrate the police, army and the judiciary. The strategy was to be executed by radicalising the youth, recruiting them and training those who “pledged their allegiance to the PFI by administration of oath of secrecy and loyalty” in the use of arms and weapons.
A hit squad had been set up to eliminate the targets identified by the organisation. Its members were regularly tasked to profile and mount surveillance on the targets. They were activated only on the instructions of NEC members and other senior leadership of the PFI, it has been alleged.
The PFI members were allegedly involved in a series of violent crimes. They include the chopping of Prof. T.J. Joseph’s right hand in Muvattupuzha (Kerala) on July 4, 2010; murder of Sashi Kumar on September 22, 2016, in Coimbatore; murder of Rudresh in Bengaluru on October 16, 2016; Ramalingam’s killing in Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu) on February 5, 2019; murders of Sanjith on November 15, 2021, and Srinivasan on April 16, 2022, in Palakkad; and Praveen Nettaru on July 26, 2022, in Dakshina Kannada.
About its alleged links with other proscribed organisations, the agency has found that the PFI emerged in the aftermath of the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). “E. Abubacker, founding chairman of the PFI, was the SIMI’s former State president for Kerala. Abdul Rehman, the PFI’s national chairman in 2010, was the former national secretary of the SIMI,” it has alleged.
In five cases, the NIA found that several alleged active PFI members had joined the Islamic State. It has also alleged that the outfit was instrumental in organising and funding protests on the issues of Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.
