A Special Court of Delhi on Friday sent three Delhi PFI leaders, namely Perwez Ahmad, Mohammad Ilias, and Abdul Muqeet, to judicial custody.
All three, namely, Perwez Ahmad, President of PFI Delhi; Mohammad Ilias, General Secretary of PFI Delhi; and Abdul Muqeet, Office Secretary of PFI Delhi, were arrested last week by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the offence of money laundering under the guise of cash donations. After the ED did not seek further custodial remand, Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Shailender Malik issued an order remanding all three accused to judicial custody for 14 days.
All three accused were produced before the court on Friday after the end of the seven-day remand, which was granted last week by the same court.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) earlier alleged that Perwez Ahmad was part of a criminal conspiracy since 2018.
“He admitted to having looked after the collection of funds in Delhi. Investigation revealed that such a fund collection exercise was a sham and was falsely projected to be received from PFI sympathizers, whereas statements of individuals, projected as contributors, revealed that these transactions were bogus. Hence, cash from suspicious sources was nothing but proceeds of crime generated out of criminal conspiracy,” ED stated.
“The non-cooperative and evasive attitude of Perwez Ahmad along with his deliberate attempts to avoid joining the ongoing investigation in light of the fresh evidence, viz., the statements of so-called donors and the evidence seized from various locations during searches, in this case, create further suspicion about his activities and involvement in money laundering activities,” ED further stated.
“It is evident that Perwez Ahmad deliberately withheld disclosure of true facts and deliberately lied and tried to mislead the investigating officer during the recording of his statements under Section 50 of PMLA, 2002,” said the ED in court.
ED earlier stated that the PMLA investigation against PFI in a matter registered in 2018 revealed that more than Rs 120 crores had been deposited in the accounts of PFI and related entities over the years, and that a very large part of the same had been deposited in cash.
According to the ED, it has recently found inputs against the PFI for “organizing a training camp with an intent to cause disturbance during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bihar’s capital Patna on July 12 this year.”
