By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
New Delhi: Popular Front of India has filed a criminal complaint against the editors and a reporter of news channel Times Now and officials of Ministry of Home Affairs at New Delhi Parliament street police statiofor leakingng the official secrets of an NIA report and airing the same in an attempt to defame the organisation.
In his complaint, Mohammad Perwez Ahmed, the Delhi State President said that Times Now telecast defamatory news against Popular Front of India two months ago. He further stated that Popular Front of India is ready to face any investigative agency including NIA and prove its innocence.
“From the contents telecasted in the channel, it is evident that Times Now has either stolen the official secrets from the MHA or it was leaked by somebody in the MHA to TIMESNOW and the same was aired in the public, which is an anti-national activity that attracts the penal provisions of the law as it has been very serious violations of the administrative protocol, secrecy and media ethics,” he wrote in the complaint.
Last month, Popular Front of India Chairman E. Abubacker had submitted a memorandum to the Home Ministry, National Security Adviser and National Investigation Agency seeking objective and fair treatment on the part of the concerned authorities and withdrawal of the alleged moves to restrict the activities of the organisation.
The memorandum denied all charges levelled against the organisation in the alleged NIA dossier reportedly submitted to MHA. He called the media reports part of the smear campaign to tarnish the image of Popular Front of India among the common public.
The organisation has also sought opportunities to directly interact with these authorities to give its explanations and clarifications with regard to the reported allegations.
On September 12, 2017, an NIA report alleged that the Popular Front of India (PFI) had links with “terror” activities and called for banning the Muslim organization.
The report, which gathered the attention of the national media, was submitted to the Union Home Ministry, claiming that the group has been involved in terror acts, including running terror camps and making bombs, and was a fit case to be declared banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The agency, according to The Indian Express, has cited PFI’s alleged involvement in four cases to support its claim—chopping off a professor’s palm in Kerala’s Idukki district, organising a training camp in Kannur from where the NIA reportedly seized swords, country-made bombs and ingredients for making IEDs, murder of RSS leader Rudresh in Bengaluru and plans to carry out terror attacks in South India by involving the outfit Islamic State Al-Hindi.
In an interview with TwoCircles.net last month month, the PFI chairman had rebuked all the charges and had alleged that NIA was being misused as a weapon against the organisation by the BJP government.