Former Uttar Pradesh Director-General of Police (DGP) Brij Lal on Wednesday alleged that the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliate Campus Front of India pumped in Rs 100 crore for instigating riots in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras after a 19-year-old Dalit girl died after allegedly being gang-raped by four Thakur men in the area.
A report also said, "The ED has allegedly found that of Rs 100 crore to have come in accounts allegedly related to Popular Front of India (PFI). Of this, Rs 50 crore came from Mauritius. Now the directorate is further probing the actual sources of these funds and the real purpose behind them."
"The ED has claimed that the entire funding was more than Rs 100 crore. The police and the cyber cell team investigating the case have found important clues. The ED can register a case in this connection and conduct raids besides interrogating the accused already arrested," the report added.
Following this, a Delhi-based Kerala journalist and three other persons allegedly linked to PFI were arrested on Monday and were booked for sedition on Wednesday. "Four persons who were apprehended from Mathura on October 5 and had links with PFI were going to Hathras to disrupt peace as part of a larger conspiracy," said the FIR registered against them.
However, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has now clarified that the talks of Rs 100 crore being recovered is untrue.
Meanwhile, sixty security personnel have been deployed and eight closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras have been installed at victim's village in Bulgarhi area to ensure the safety of her family members, police said on Friday.
DIG Shalabh Mathur, who has been sent to Hathras from Lucknow as a nodal officer, told PTI that if needed a control room will also be established there.
"Sixty personnel, including women, have been deployed on 12 hours shifts for the security of the victim's family. A gazetted officer will also be deployed to monitor these personnel. With the help of CCTV cameras, the house of the victim will be monitored round-the-clock," he said.
(With PTI inputs)
