Popular Front of India Chairman O M A Salam, in a statement, has rejected the claims made by the Enforcement Directorate in its press release dated 13 May 2022.
The Enforcement Directorate in a release posted on the agency’s website on 13th May 2022 has made several serious allegations against the Popular Front of India and informs that it has filed a Supplementary Prosecution Complaint against the two leaders of the organization who had been recently arrested by the agency. Popular Front rejects all these allegations. By linking totally unconnected incidents the ED has been fabricating a story against Popular Front. The present press release is nothing but the rehash of the same story cooked up to harass the Popular Front, its leaders, and its members.
In January 2022 the ED conducted raids at the residences and offices of some of the members of the Popular Front in Kerala. Nothing was found in the raids and the whole exercise was politically motivated and part of the witch-hunt launched against the organization by the BJP government. Despite knowing that the PMLA case and all the allegations were fabricated, as a lawfully working organization, Popular Front and its members have been complying with all the investigations.
The subsequent arrests of our member Abdul Razak BP and Kerala State Executive Member M K Ashraf are part of the ongoing harassment. They were independent businessmen and committed no crimes other than being Muslims and cooperating with humanitarian activities of the Popular Front. The Munnar Villa Vista Project and Darbar Restaurant in UAE mentioned in the ED Press Release have nothing to do with Popular Front. They were legitimate business ventures. Under the guise of investigation, ED is targeting lawful Muslim businesses.
ED is well aware that its story is not going to hold up in a court of law, so the press release is intended to tarnish the image of the organization. It also indicates that ED wants to continue the ongoing harassment by prolonging the proceedings and the detention of the innocents the agency has arrested.
The Popular Front will not be intimidated by these cases. This is not the first time the agency has targeted a lawfully working organization. The agency has turned itself into a tool of harassment by those in power and has done the same thing with many other political parties and leaders. The Popular Front will confront the harassment in a legal and democratic way
