After a five-year ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliates under the anti-terror law, the home ministry has told the police heads in states and Union Territories to take action against the outfit’s other offices and seize funds.
According to senior government officials, PFI members will have to declare their dissociation from the organisation, but, if they continue, they will face a two-year jail term and fine.
The law enforcement agencies have been asked to publicise the MHA notification.
The local police will affix the notification on some PFI offices in the country, send out its copies to principal office-bearers, and read out the contents of the order, by means of a loudspeaker, in the area where PFI activities were ordinarily carried out.
The Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), under which the PFI has been banned, says the Central government is of the opinion that any association is or has become unlawful, will be declared so by a notification in the official gazette.
Once the organisation has been declared unlawful, 15 days would be given for self-disclosure, according to the UAPA.
PFI and its affiliates’ members will have to inform the police about the related documents and hand them over to them.
Senior officials said after banning the PFI, enough time will be given to its members to quit the organisation, but, if any, incriminating documents are found from them, a case would be registered against the person.
According to the UAPA, members handling funds of PFI will be stopped from paying, delivering, transferring or otherwise dealing in any manner with such moneys, securities or credits.
The UAPA says the District Magistrate, within the local limits of a jurisdiction, will make a list of all movable properties (other than wearing-apparel, cooking vessels, beds and beddings, tools of artisans, implements of husbandry, cattle, grain and food stuffs and such other articles as he considers to be of a trivial nature) found in the notified place in the presence of two “respectable” witnesses.
The anti-terror law gives 30 days to the person for declaring the place, which has not been used for the purpose of the unlawful association. If its members continue to gather and hold meetings then they will be sent to a jail term for two years, and will also be liable to fine, according to the UAPA.
Moreover, the home ministry may declare one-member tribunal as the notification has been issued under the sub-section of the Section 3 of UAPA. “Where any association has been declared unlawful by a notification issued under sub-section (1) of section 3, the Central Government shall, within thirty days from the date of the publication of the notification under the said sub-section, refer the notification to the Tribunal for the purpose of adjudicating whether or not there is sufficient cause for declaring the association unlawful,” UAPA says.
The tribunal will decide if the ban has been done on proper grounds, evidence or not.
The home ministry’s notification is subject to any order that may be made under Section 4 of the UAPA, which deals with “Reference to Tribunal”.
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