New Delhi, March 4 National president of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) M.K. Faizy, an Islamic scholar and a political observer who served as a Masjid Imam in the 1980s, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), an official said on Tuesday.
Faizy, who is among the founders of the SDPI which is suspected to be the ‘political front’ of the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI), was arrested on Monday night from Delhi airport in a money laundering case -- a development that came close to an ED raid on his house in Kerala’s Palakkad on February 28.
Sources said Faizy was not present during the multi-agency raid on his home.
The SDPI claims itself to be an independent outfit without any connection with the PFI.
The ED, as part of its probe against the PFI in 2022, had linked Faizy with a Kerala-based PFI leader Abdul Razak BP who is alleged to have "transferred" Rs 2 lakh to the SDPI national president as part of the fund-raising activities of his (Razak's) organisation.
The PFI and its eight affiliates were banned by the Centre in 2022 for fuelling radicalisation and was involved in terror funding.
Founded in 2009, and headquartered in Delhi, SDPI is alleged to be the political front of the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI).
Before the ban on PFI in 2022, simultaneous raids and enforcement action were conducted against it by multiple agencies, including the NIA and various state police forces.
The organisation, according to officials in the investigative agencies, has "strong" influence in various pockets of Kerala and Karnataka and some other south Indian states.
In August last year, multiple raids were conducted in various parts of Tamil Nadu on the premises of former members of the outlawed PFI.
The raids were conducted in Myladuthurai, Thanjavur, Tiruchi, Coimbatore, Madurai and certain other locations.
In Muthupet (Thiruvarur), the NIA sleuths raided the residence of a lawyer suspected to be associated with the banned organisation.
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