Thiruvananthapuram: Union Minister for Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Thursday defended ED raids in SDPI offices saying that all the actions by the enforcement agencies are based on certain facts and figures.
Responding to a query, while interacting with reporters, on the Enforcement Directorate raids as part of a money laundering investigation against SDPI, purportedly the political outfit of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), he said: “All the actions by the enforcement agencies are based on certain facts and figures which I can’t comment on.”
He was in Thiruvananthapuram to attend the regional review meeting and training workshop on the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) for the states and union territories of the Southern Region.
When questioned about the action on SDPI, a political party recognized by the Election Commission of India, Rijiju stated that any action taken against illegal deeds should not be viewed as a communal issue or given a communal angle to it, whether it involves PFI or any other organization.
“If anybody has committed a mistake, crime or breached the law, action is based on the provisions in the law, and it’s not based on who belongs to which community?” the Union Minister said.
So the investigating agencies and other agencies are active, and they are doing their job, he added. “I have no specific thing to offer as a comment because I have come here for developmental works, and I have not been briefed about the cases which you are referring to,” he told reporters.
The searches came after the probe agency arrested Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) national president M K Faizy.
The ED had claimed then that there existed an “organic” relation between the two outfits and that the PFI was carrying out its criminal activities through the political party (SDPI).
The PFI was banned by the Union government in September 2022, calling it an unlawful association and for indulging in terrorist activities. The SDPI was founded in 2009 and headquartered in Delhi. It is alleged to be the political front of the PFI.
