3 more members of banned PFI arrested in MP for 'conspiracy against govt'
Bhopal (PTI): The Madhya Pradesh Police have arrested three members of the banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) on charges of conspiring against the government and indulging in unlawful activities, an official said on Sunday.
With this, the police have taken into custody four members of the banned outfit in the last couple of days.
In the latest action, two PFI members were arrested in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal on Saturday while the third one was arrested after being brought on production warrant from Aurangabad (in Maharashtra) in connection with a case registered by the MP Police's Special Task Force last year, the official said.
The three accused have been identified as Gulam Rasool Shah (37), a resident of Dhar district, Sajid Khan aka Gulam Nabi (56), a resident of Indore, and Parvez Khan (30), from Aurangabad, he said.
They were booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 121A (conspiracy to wage war against government), 153B (assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 120B (criminal conspiracy), besides provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act," the official said.
Parvez Khan was in a jail in Aurangabad and was brought to Bhopal on Saturday on a production warrant, he said.
The official said Parvez Khan was associated with the PFI since 2017 and came to Madhya Pradesh as the physical endurance (PE) instructor of the banned organisation to impart the training on several occasions.
Gulam Rasool was an active member of the PFI and used to inspire people to work for the organisation by visiting various areas of the state, he said.
Gulam Nabi was looking after the PFI's financial management Madhya Pradesh, the official said.
The three accused were produced before a local court which sent them in police remand till February 8.
Earlier on Friday, the police arrested PFI office-bearer Wasid Khan (26), a resident of Sheopur, in the same case.
Wasid Khan joined PFI's legal cell National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation in 2019 and held the post of its state general secretary, the official said.
The Centre in September 2022 banned the PFI and several of its associates for five years under a stringent anti-terror law, accusing them of having "links" with global terror groups like ISIS and trying to spread communal hatred in the country.
Before the ban, the National Investigating Agency (NIA), the Enforcement Directorate(ED) and various state police forces had carried out raids in a massive pan-India crackdown on the PFI and arrested several of its leaders and activists from various states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.
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19-yr-old woman found hanging from tree in UP village; juvenile held
Lucknow/Pratapgarh (UP) (PTI): Police have apprehended a 16-year-old boy for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in a village here, officials said on Monday.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, said that the body of a 19-year-old woman was found hanging from a tree in an orchard in the Manikpur police station area on Sunday morning. A post-mortem examination subsequently confirmed that she had been raped.
Police registered a case against unidentified persons under sections 103(1) (punishment for murder) and 70(1) (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and initiated an investigation.
During the course of the investigation, the police found that the deceased was in contact with a juvenile who was also her relative.
Acting on this information, during a joint checking operation, sub-inspector Amit Kumar Singh of Manikpur police station and SOG In-charge Amit Kumar Chaurasia, along with their team, apprehended the 16-year-old near the Lehdari Ganga River bridge.
The search for other accused persons is ongoing, police said.
According to the police, the woman had gone to sleep after dinner on Saturday night but was found hanging in an orchard nearly 400 metres away from her home the following morning.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, had earlier said that the circumstances suggest foul play.
"The victim's slippers and undergarments were recovered 50 metres away from the spot where the body was found. There are visible injury marks on her body," Rai said.
While locals have alleged that the woman was murdered after being raped, the ASP said that it is "prima facie a case of murder."
"Based on the complaint filed by the victim's brother, a case of murder has been registered against unidentified persons," the officer added.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post on X in Hindi on Monday, said, "The news of the heinous murder of a Dalit daughter in Pratapgarh is deeply tragic and condemnable."
"The question remains: why does the spate of murders of 'PDA daughters' continue unabated in Uttar Pradesh? Are the BJP government's claims regarding women's safety merely hollow rhetoric, or is there, in fact, discrimination even in the provision of security for women?" he said.
"Whenever the 'wandering Honourable (ghumantu maananiye)' finds a moment of respite from election campaigning, he should cast a glance at the plight of the daughters of his own Uttar Pradesh. In any case, apart from injustice and oppression, no sister, daughter, or mother of this state holds any hope from you," Yadav added.
