ED makes fresh arrest from Tamil Nadu in PFI-SDPI case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested a man from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu following fresh round of searches in a money laundering case against the SDPI, the political front of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), official sources said Friday.

Wahidur Rahman Jainullabudeen was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) from Mettupalayam in Coimbatore district on Thursday, the sources said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) made the arrest after conducting searches at the house of Jainullabudeen, who was brought to Delhi on Thursday night, and is expected to be produced before a special PMLA court on Friday, they said.

Fresh raids were launched by the agency on Thursday in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Kerala.

The federal probe agency carried out the first round of searches in the case on March 6 after it arrested M K Faizy, the national president of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), from the Delhi airport on March 3.

The ED claimed before a court while seeking 55-year-old Faizy's custody that there existed an "organic" relation between the two outfits and that the PFI was carrying out its criminal activities through the political party (SDPI).

The Centre banned the PFI in September 2022, calling it an unlawful association which allegedly indulged in terrorist activities.

Multi-agency searches by the ED, National Investigation Agency (NIA) and various state police forces preceded the PFI ban.

Founded in 2009, the SDPI is registered as a political party with the Election Commission of India.

While seeking Faizy's remand, the ED told the court that the PFI and the SDPI were "organically" linked and the latter was nothing but the "political front" of the former and was "funded and controlled" by it.

The agency claimed that it had evidence to state that there was a "deep-rooted" nexus between the two organisations as there was "overlapping" membership of their cadres, involvement of PFI office-bearers in the founding of the SDPI, and utilisation of each other's assets.

The SDPI, according to officials in the investigating agencies, has "strong" influence in various pockets of Kerala and Karnataka and some other south Indian states.