ED makes fresh arrest from Tamil Nadu in PFI-SDPI case
New Delhi (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate has arrested a man from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu after fresh round of searches in a money laundering case against the SDPI, the political outfit of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), official sources said.
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 has been brought to Delhi and is expected to be produced before a special PMLA court on Friday, they said.
Freah raids were launched by the ED on Thursday in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Kerala.
The federal probe agency carried out the first round of searches in the case in the first week of March and arrested M K Faizy, the national president of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI)
The ED claimed before a court while seeking Faizy's remand 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.
Seeking Faizy's remand earlier this week, 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.
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Bengaluru: Garbage collection to be hit as BBMP cleaners, drivers begin indefinite strike
Bengaluru: Starting Wednesday evening, around 5,300 auto tippers and 700 garbage trucks in Bengaluru have reportedly stopped operating, as cleaners and drivers have started an indefinite strike.
The workers are protesting against the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) Solid Waste Management department, demanding that their jobs be made permanent, reported The New Indian Express.
Hundreds of workers gathered at the BBMP head office to raise their demands. Anticipating trouble, the police took them into preventive custody but released them later in the day.
The workers are asking the BBMP to implement the IPD Salappa report and give permanent jobs to drivers who handle solid waste.
TNIE quoted Thyagraj, president of the Karmikara Samrakshane Organisation, who is leading the protest, as saying that over 500 people had gathered on Wednesday, but the police stopped them from entering the BBMP office and detained them briefly.
According to the report, Thyagraj has warned that from Thursday onwards, garbage collection across the city will be badly affected.
