Lawyer arrested in Kerala PFI Case: NIA

The National Investigation Agency has arrested a lawyer in a case related to “unlawful and violent activities” by the banned Popular Front of India in Kerala, an official said on Friday.

Mohammed Mubarak A I, a resident of Edavanakkad in Ernakulam district, was the fourteenth person to be arrested in the case, subsequent to searches conducted at 56 locations in the state on Thursday, a spokesperson of the federal agency said.

“Mubarak is a PFI (Popular Front of India) martial arts and hit squad trainer/member. He is a practising advocate in the Kerala High Court,” the official said.

The spokesperson said that an assortment of arms, including an axe, swords and sickles, concealed in a badminton racket bag, were seized from his house during the searches.

“Investigations have confirmed that the PFI was raising, training and maintaining hit squads in different states and districts to target leaders and members of other communities,” the spokesperson said. In a major crackdown against the PFI in Kerala, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had conducted searches at 56 locations across 12 districts at the residences of seven state executive committee members and as many zonal heads of the PFI.

Houses of 15 physical training instructors or trainers and seven members trained in using knives, daggers, swords and other types of weapons to carry out murderous violent acts were also searched, the official said.

The crackdown also covered 20 other suspects in connection with the case which was registered suo-moto on September 19.

Earlier, the NIA had conducted searches at 24 locations in Kerala, including at the offices of the PFI and residences of 13 accused, on September 22.