Court extends ED custody of SDPI national president Faizy

 New Delhi : A Delhi court on Monday extended by three days the ED custody of SDPI national president M K Faizy in an alleged case of money laundering related to the proscribed Popular Front of India (PFI).

Additional sessions judge Chander Jit Singh extended the custody on EDs plea seeking extension of custody for five days.

On March 4, the court sent Faizy to custody on the plea of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking his interrogation and confronting him to unearth the money trail in the case and conspiracy.

The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), founded in 2009 and headquar-tered in Delhi, is alleged to be the political front of the now banned PFI.

In its application seeking 10 days of his custody, the ED alleged Faizy was on the run. The accused opposed the application, saying the funds were transferred before the PFI was declared unlawful.

“How could accused know that the government was going to declare it unlaw-ful so that could have stopped the transaction,” the defence counsel had said. Faizy, according to the sources, was held on the night of March 3 from the Delhi international airport under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED has alleged SDPI to be the “political front” of PFI, which was banned by the Centre in September, 2022 for being an “unlawful association”.

Prior to the ban, simultaneous raids and enforcement action were conducted against the PFI by multiple probe agencies, including the ED, NIA and other state police teams.

The SDPI, however, denies any such link and calls itself an independent outfit. According to the SDPI, Faizy was among the founder leaders of the organisa-tion and was elected its national president in 2018. He is a Islamic scholar and a political observer who served as a Masjid Imam in the 1980s, the SDPI por-tal said.