ED investigating role of PFI, NGO for funding protest against Article 370

The probe agency is likely to summon more people connected with these two organisations to find out the source of the funds.

Widening its probe, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is examining the role of Kerala -based Popular Front of India (PFI) and Rehab India Foundation (RIF) for allegedly funding protests against the abrogation of Sections of Article 370.

Senior members of both organisations earlier were questioned in connection with their alleged link to Rs 120 crore used for the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country. While the PFI is an Islamic outfit, RIF is a non-profit organisation.

However, the ED’s inquiry in the ongoing matter raised suspicion over their involvement in several protests over 70 days since the government removed Jammu & Kashmir's (J&K's) special status.

Sources in the ED said the protests related to the J&K issue were stage-managed, especially in Delhi-NCR and some areas of Uttar Pradesh. Officials are trying to ascertain the quantum of funding that was mobilised allegedly to provoke protesters.

The probe agency is likely to summon more people connected with these two organisations to find out the source of the funds, and whether there was any support from anti-social elements. Early probe reveals that cash given to a protester was in the range of Rs 2,000-10,000 at the height of the stir against the J&K move.

On Wednesday, the PFI’s state president Mohammed Parvez Ahmed and RFI’s Shahid Abu Bakr appeared before the ED in Delhi.

A team of Delhi and UP police is working with the central agency to identify the people who deposited and withdrew Rs 1.04 crore cash between December 4 and January 6 from about 15 bank accounts of the PFI and RFI. There were as many as 80-90 withdrawals from a few bank accounts in a day, the sources said.

Business Standard

Hundreds march from Jamia to Shaheen Bagh as anti-CAA protest continues

Many of them held candles and others marched holding placards that said, 'We reject CAA, NRC and NPR', 'Hindu Muslim Sikh Isai, Aapas Meyn Bhai Bhai'.

Business Standard : Hundreds of people, including women and children, on Sunday evening took out a massive anti-CAA march from Jamia university gate to Shaheen Bagh as the chorus to demand repealing of the amended Citizenship Act grew louder in Delhi.

The march was high on symbolism as some locals dressed up as Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar, while three men assumed the identity of martyred revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, one of them in prison clothes and tied in chains.

The protesters, chanting 'Azadi' and 'CAA-NCR Par Halla Bol', and other slogans also paraded a mock 'detention camp' portrayed with a cell on wheels inside of which sat little children of multiple faiths and changed slogans.

People have been protesting at Shaheen Bagh, which has become an epicentre of the anti-CAA agitation in the national capital, for the last over 30 days.

Many of them held candles and others marched holding placards that said, 'We reject CAA, NRC and NPR', 'Hindu Muslim Sikh Isai, Aapas Meyn Bhai Bhai'.

After the march ended, protesters gathered from various parts of Delhi, raised slogans against the central government and demanded revocation of the CAA.

Mohammed Shah Rukh, a protester who came from Jaitpur, carrying the national flag spent his time trying to balance on the rail of the highway that runs through the area, while holding the tricolour in his hand in a "freedom fighter pose".

"I feel very overwhelmed by this movement, something we read in school textbooks about our freedom struggle, I feel we are fighting for that liberty again," he said.

Khan, a car mechanic, said some of his brothers also took part in the protest.

Several poets from various parts of the country also have gathered at Shaheen Bagh protest site, reciting patriotic poems, imbued with sarcasm towards the establishment.

Till late night, people had gathered in large numbers to listen to the poets, including women, who watched and chanted slogans way past midnight.

A group of four women, including two college girls, had come from Batla House to take part in the protest.

Kerala takes Citizenship Act to Supreme Court, first state to do so

In a suit filed in the apex court, the Kerala government has sought to declare that the CAA 2019 is violative of Article 14.

Kerala on Tuesday challenged the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the Supreme Court, becoming the first state to do so as nationwide protest against the controversial law continue.

Kerala’s petition’s requests the court to declare CAA as illegal for violating of the Constitution’s Article 131, which empowers the Supreme Court to hear disputes between government of India and one or more states, Hindustan Times reported.

It says that the CAA violates right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution of India, right to life under Article 21 and freedom to practise religion under Article 25.

Kerala’s Left Democratic Front government has strongly opposed CAA, passing a resolution against it in the Assembly and criticizing the law in front-page advertisements of at least three national dailies.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, an ally of the BJP, has spoken against CAA, joining Madhya Pradesh’s Kamal Nath, West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee and Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren in opposing the law.

CAA aims to fast-track citizenship for persecuted Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who arrived in India before Dec. 31, 2014, from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The passing of the bill on December 11 triggered widespread demonstrations in the Assam, as protesters feared it would convert thousands of illegal migrants from neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh into legal residents.

Elsewhere in India, protesters say the citizenship law will be followed by the national register, which they fear is designed by the BJP-led government to expel Muslims who do not have sufficient citizenship documentation.

The government has refuted those allegations and vowed to protect all citizens equally.