NEW DELHI: Over the years, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has said that Rs 120 crore has reached the accounts of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliates. The ED informed the special court in Lucknow that the interrogation revealed that the funds were collected for illegal activities.

According to the remand report, the money was used to the violence that led to the February 2020 Delhi riots, the visit of PFI members to Hatras with the aim of disrupting religious harmony and creating communal riots, forming a terrorist group, procure lethal weapons and explosives to carry out simultaneous attacks on prominent persons and sensitive places in Uttar Pradesh, to organize a training camp to carry out attacks during the Prime Minister's visit to Patna, and to prepare light weapons that could threaten the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country.

The accused had even planned to form a terrorist group with the intention of carrying out an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Patna on July 12 this year. Based on the cases registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other agencies remand report also states that the ED's investigation against the PFI and its associated persons and entities is in progress.

A case has been registered by the NIA and the ED on charges of disturbing communal harmony, spreading terror, inciting communal riots, forming a terrorist organization and stockpiling deadly weapons and explosives to carry out simultaneous attacks on several important persons and places, and imparting training in the use of explosives and weapons.

More than 100 PFI activists were arrested in a nationwide raid led by the NIA on Thursday. The search was conducted simultaneously in 15 states under the leadership of NIA, ED and state police.