NIA Files 5th Chargesheet Against 19 Members of PFI

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed its fifth chargesheet yesterday against the 19 people of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI).

The charge sheet includes names of 12 National Executive Council (NEC) members of the banned outfit, for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to wage a war for establishing an Islamic Caliphate in the country, said an official.

With the filing of the chargesheet in the Delhi case, the total number of accused charge-sheeted in PFI cases across the country by NIA now stands at 105, said a spokesperson of the agency.

The 19 accused charge-sheeted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act included Salam, Rahiman, Nazaruddin, Ahmed, Afsar Pasha, E Abubacker, Prof P Koya and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, said the spokesperson.

They were arrested in September last year following a nationwide crackdown at 39 locations, including PFI offices, across the country after the group was banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

”The case, under investigation since April 2022, had revealed that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by the PFI to divide the country into communal lines. It has also come to light that the ultimate objective of the conspiracy was to overthrow the existing system of secular and democratic governance in India and replace it with an Islamic Caliphate,” said NIA.