Arrested fruit seller in Kerala was tasked by PFI to collect info on RSS, BJP events: NIA

During investigation, sources said the NIA found that the PFI had radicalised several local people and they used to call them their “reporters” after assigning them a job to collect information.

“Sadik is a school dropout and he came in touch with some PFI members in 2012. They radicalised him and he decided to join them. He was working as a fruit seller and they asked him to collect all the information related to events of the RSS and BJP. They also specifically asked him to collect information about the guest list of the events,” a source said, adding that the NIA has found pamphlets of several RSS events and guest lists from his possession.

“The case pertains to activities of the PFI, its office-bearers, members and affiliates in Kerala for conspiring to indulge in unlawful activities by creating enmity between members of different religions and groups… and encouraging vulnerable youth to join terrorist organizations, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)/Daesh and al-Qaida… conspiracy to establish Islamic rule in India by committing terrorist acts as a part of violent jihad,” an NIA spokesperson said.

“Investigations have revealed that the PFI had assigned the job of a ‘reporter’ to Sadik. A ‘reporter’ in the PFI system collects details about leaders of other communities for possible targeting by ‘hit squads’ of the PFI. During the searches, digital devices and several incriminating documents have been seized from the house of the accused,” the officer said.