In a money laundering case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen 23 bank accounts linked to the Popular Front of India (PFI) with a total balance of Rs 59 lakhs and ten bank accounts linked to PFI’s front organisation, Rehab India Foundation (RIF), with a total balance of Rs 9.50 lakh, officials said. The ED claims that PFI and RIF received large amounts of money from questionable sources.
‘An amount of more than Rs 60 crore have been deposited in the accounts of PFI which includes cash deposit of more than Rs 30 crore since 2009. Similarly, around Rs 58 Crore have been deposited in the accounts of RIF since 2010,’ the ED said in a statement.
PFI has been accused of laundering proceeds of crime in active collusion with other associated accused persons, according to officials. The financial investigative agency further claims that proceeds of crime were mobilised in the form of cash, which was put in its bank accounts under the guise of cash donations from members.
‘Similarly, in order to obliterate the fund trail and circumvent the regulatory rigour, proceeds of crime were mobilised in the form of cash and deposited by PFI leaders in the bank accounts of various individuals and immediately thereafter these funds were transferred from bank accounts to PFI’s bank account,’the ED statement added.
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