ED arrests Kerala leader MK Ashraf, PFI condemns

New Delhi [India], April 13 (ANI): The Enforcement Directorate has arrested MK Ashraf, a Popular Front of India (PFI) leader from Kerala, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
He was arrested at the Delhi Headquarters of the federal agency yesterday, sources told ANI.
PFI leader's residence was raided by the ED last January and subsequently, he was summoned multiple times to Delhi for questioning.
In the month of March alone, he was questioned on four consecutive days from 19 to 23 and had received another summon on March 29 asking to appear again on April 5.
Popular Front of India Chairman OMA Salam has strongly condemned the arrest of MK Ashraf and called the arrest part of the ongoing "witch-hunt" against the organization.
Salam said that the arrest of Ashraf is harassment by the agency against the leaders and members of the organization for the past few years.
"Summons were issued by the ED in a harassing manner with ulterior motives. As law-abiding citizens, the leaders from the national level to the state level have been cooperating with every step of the investigation and complying with all the conditions put by the agency since January 2020 on multiple occasions," he said.
Salam further said that although ED has not found anything against the organization even after years of its investigation, raids, harassment and arrests are continuing on dubious grounds.
"All these actions show that rather than a fair investigation, the agency has sinister motives behind the case," he added.
Fully convinced that this is an utterly false case initiated against the organisation by the Union Home Ministry, the Popular Front has challenged the very legality of the ECIR (Enforcement Crime Information Report) filed against the organisation before the Delhi High Court.
"While the litigation is still pending and the final hearing is just a week away, the questioning and arrests of the leaders and members of the organization are nothing but the cowardly actions of the agency, out of the fear that the case may fall apart before the court of law," Salam said.
The PFI Chairman called these acts of the ED "religious and political vendetta" against an organisation that stands for minorities.
"The ED is destroying its credibility as a legal and impartial agency. Their hands being tied from touching the multimillion business frauds enjoying political patronage. The ED is no longer acting as per its stated objectives. It is high time that the higher judiciary intervened in the matter to stop these misconducts by the central agency," Salam added.
The PFI urged the ED to refrain from acting as the "puppets of sectarian and fanatic political masters" for quelling the democratic rights of minorities in the country.
"Popular Front wants to make it clear that the organization will not be intimidated by these politically motivated cases and will mobilize public opinion against the ED violations while continuing to fight the false cases in courts," Salam said. (ANI)