New Delhi, Jun 5 A Delhi court on Friday ordered framing charges against several top leaders of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) outfit, observing that there is "grave suspicion" of a conspiracy to overthrow the Indian government and establish an Islamic caliphate by 2047.
Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma ordered framing charges under the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against 25 PFI members as well as the organisation.
"Considered as a whole, the material on record raises grave suspicion that the accused, acting through and on behalf of the Popular Front of India and its National Executive Council (NEC), agreed and acted in furtherance of a single conspiracy -- to overthrow the secular democratic government of India and establish an Islamic caliphate under Sharia law in India by or before the year 2047 through an armed struggle against the State," the judge said.
Each accused's role, on the material at face value, fits into one or more limbs of the conspiracy, he added.
The court also ordered framing charges against the PFI, saying it is a juristic person capable of committing offences.
Besides the UAPA provisions under sections 18 (conspiracy) and 18B (punishment for recruiting any person or persons for terrorist act), the court has directed that charges be framed against several accused persons and the PFI for the offences of promoting enmity between different groups and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony, waging or attempting to wage war or abetting the waging of war against the government and collecting arms with such intention.
The accused persons include PFI's chairman O M A Salam, vice-chairman E M Abdul Rahiman, general secretary Anis Ahmed, secretary Afsar Pasha and founding chairman E Abubacker.
In its order, the court said the NEC and the office-bearers "are the directing mind and will of the PFI", besides being the "persons or group of persons that guide the business of the company" or the "alter ego of the PFI".
Noting that the institutional decisions of "targeting Hindu leaders and support to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" were taken at the PFI's NEC meetings, it said the acts were not personal acts of the office-bearers in their individual capacities but the "acts of the PFI through its directing minds".
The court has posted the matter for formal framing of charges on July 10.
The case stems from the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) FIR of April 2022, following which the agency filed its final report and a supplementary chargesheet against 26 accused, including the PFI. The court took cognisance of the chargesheets in March and April 2023.
In December last year, NIA's special public prosecutor Rahul Tyagi had informed the court that PFI leaders were trying to procure arms from neighbouring countries and give arms training to its cadre.
On Friday, besides Tyagi, assisting public prosecutors Vikas Walia and Jatin Khatri, along with advocates Amit Rohilla and Shubham Goyal, appeared in the court on behalf of the NIA.
In September 2022, the Centre banned the PFI and several of its associates for five years under the UAPA, accusing them of having "links" with global terror groups, such as ISIS.
