BENGALURU: Days after ‘Join CFI’ graffiti were seen painted in Shiralakoppa of Shivamogga district, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said Popular Front of India (PFI) activists indulged in graffiti as they are frustrated after a ban was imposed on the organisation.
Speaking to reporters here on Monday, Bommai said, “The police have already initiated action against those who scribbled the graffiti and stern action will be taken against the guilty. After the ban, the frustrated PFI activists have indulged in graffiti. It should be condemned in the strongest words. It is not correct on their part to do this to create confusion in society”.
A suo motu case was registered after the (graffiti) ‘Join CFI’ (Campus Front of India), a subsidiary student wing of the banned PFI were seen in several parts of Shiralakoppa town. The graffiti at at least nine places were noticed on November 28 during police patrol and was immediately removed.
According to Shivamogga Superintendent of Police G K Mithun Kumar, a case was registered on Sunday at Shiralakoppa police station and a search for the accused is under way. The SP said that the graffiti is most likely to have been painted before the formal ban on the PFI.
In September, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) imposed a ban on the radical outfit and its affiliates for five years for having “terror links”. Along with PFI, the ban has been imposed on Rehab India Foundation, Campus Front of India, All India Imams Council, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation, National Women’s Front, Junior Front and Empower India Foundation as an “unlawful association”.
As per the inputs received by both the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as well as the Enforcement Directorate (ED), “the PFI has been raising and collecting substantial funds from abroad in a well-organised and structured manner”. The central agencies also came to know about the “PFI raising funds abroad and their transfer to India through clandestine and illegal channels”.
The PFI was launched in Kerala in 2006 after merging three Muslim organisations. (ANI)