Student Transfers to Gold Smuggling: Banned PFI Funding Channels Unearthed in India

Indian law enforcement agencies have disclosed the Popular Front of India's (PFI) global funding channels which were reportedly used to assist the Muslim organization and its associates in spreading its networks across 17 states.

According to a document submitted by investigative agencies before a court in Delhi and reviewed by Sputnik, the PFI and its associates received funding from the Gulf nations through various sources, including real estate and financing in the name of the Haj pilgrimage.

In particular, the group received a huge sum of money from Saudi Arabia “in the name of helping Indians during Haj,” while “the people of the organization are also investing huge amount in real estate in Abu Dhabi,” the National Investigative Agency (NIA) has claimed.

PFI members in Kerala have likewise been purportedly investing in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, laundering their incomes via e-wallet app Hawala, the document reported, while people linked to the organization are also said to be involved in the "car rental" business in the Gulf nations.

Gold smuggling has also become a significant route of transferring money collected in Saudi Arabia to the PFI, the agency added.

Saudi Arabia’s PFI branch also “sent funds here in India through e-wallet in the name of legal aid and community service”, the document reads.

25 September 2022, 12:00 GMT

In one example, the Social Forum in Oman, working in collaboration with the PFI and its affiliates, sent around $55,000 through Hawala. PFI Oman leader Ashfaq Chaikkinakath Puyil was entrusted with the fundraising, the NIA added.

The PFI also reportedly operated cultural forums in Oman and Qatar allegedly supporting Daesh* in Syria: “These organizations were supporters of the Islamic State in Syria. One of them, Muhammad Fahimi, used to sell vehicles to the ISIS network in Syria. ISF, IFF and CF raise money from Indians settled in Qatar in the name of PFI and SDPI,” the NIA alleged.

The intelligence report also added that the PFI had previously established roots in Turkey and with the help of Indian students sent transfers to the country a few years ago.

The PFI also reportedly established shell companies in various countries, such as the Kuwait Indian Social Forum, which received money from wealthy employees and businessmen of Kuwait in the name of helping Muslim interests. Meanwhile, the forum allegedly helped radicalize Muslims by spreading videos of violence.

* Daesh (also known as IS/ISIS) a terrorist organization banned in Russia