NIA files supplementary chargesheet against 5 PFI members

According to a senior NIA official, the charge-sheeted persons are trained PFI cadres who were found involved in provoking and radicalizing gullible Muslim youths, recruiting them into the PFI, and imparting weapons training in specifically organized PFI training camps.

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a supplementary chargesheet against five Popular Front of India (PFI) members for their involvement in organizing arms training camps to carry anti-India activities.

On completion of further investigation into the case pertaining to the criminal conspiracy hatched by PFI leaders and cadres to recruit and radicalize youths and organize training camps to put them through arms training for carrying acts of terror and violence, the NIA filed the chargesheet in a special court in Hyderabad on Thursday.

The five accused namely Shaik Raheem alias Abdul Raheem, Shaik Vahaid Ali, Jafrulla Khan Pathan, Shaik Riyaz Ahamed, and Abdul Waris have been charge-sheeted under Sections 120B, 153A of IPC and Sections 13 (1) (b), 18, 18A, and 18B of the UA (P) Act, 1967.

A senior NIA official said that the charge-sheeted persons are trained PFI cadres who were found involved in provoking and radicalizing gullible Muslim youths, recruiting them into the PFI, and imparting weapons training in specifically organized PFI training camps.

"The aim was to carry out violent activities and establish Islamic rule in the country by 2047. These PFI cadres misinterpreted religious texts and proclaimed that a violent form of Jihad was necessary to alleviate the sufferings of Muslims in India," the official said quoting the investigation report.

Once recruited into the PFI, the Mulsim youths were sent to the training camps organized by the accused where they were trained in the use of lethal weapons to kill their 'targets' by attacking their vital body parts such as throat, stomach, head etc, the official said.

Earlier in December 2020, NIA had filed its first chargesheet against 11 accused in the case after taking over the investigation of the case on August 22 from Telangana police. The case was initially registered as FIR no. 141/2022 on July 4, 2022 at VI Town police station at Nizamabad in Telangana.