ED raids 6 locations of Delhi riots accused Tahir Hussain

Almost 20 days after Delhi Police named suspended AAP councillor Tahir Hussain in the Delhi riots case, the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday carried out searches at six locations in connection with its probe in a money laundering case against him.

An ED source said, "Multiple teams of the agency are carrying out searches at six locations in the National Capital Region (NCR) related to Hussain."

The source said that the financial probe agency teams are carrying out searches at four locations in north east Delhi and two locations in Noida.

The ED action comes almost three weeks after it registered a case of money laundering against Hussain, who is currently in judicial custody. The ED had registered a case against Hussain and the Popular Front of India (PFI) for money laundering and funding of riots in Delhi.

A senior ED official wishing not to be named told IANS, "We have filed a case of money laundering against Hussain and PFI."

The official said that Hussain and PFI have been booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The PFI is already facing a case from the central financial probe agency for their alleged role in the funding of the anti-CAA protests across the country.

The ED has taken cognisance of number of FIRs filed by Delhi Police Crime Branch to probe the alleged money laundering and routing of illegal funds by Hussain, PFI and others to purportedly sponsor the communal riots that killed over 52 people in the last week of February in northeast Delhi.

The ED is probing the funding and source of income which Hussain allegedly received for 'inciting' violence in Delhi. After Delhi violence, role of Hussain was found dubious as from his house the police recovered several petrol bombs as well as the acid pouches. His house in Khajuri Khas area of northeast Delhi was also used for stone-pelting and hurling petrol bombs during violence. On June 2, the Delhi Police filed two chargesheets in this connection.

The charge sheets have been filed in the Karkardooma court by the Crime Branch. Three special investigation teams were constituted to investigate the cases registered during the riots. First chargesheet has been filed against Hussain under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act. Fifteen persons, including Hussain, were arrested in this case.

Investigation has revealed that there was a "deep rooted conspiracy" to cause riots in northeast Delhi. Delhi Police in its fresh chargesheet filed in the murder of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma during the Delhi riots has claimed that Hussain was "leading the mob from his house and also from the Masjid near Chand Bagh Pulia giving it a communal colour" and that his location near "the spot where the IB staffer was brutally murdered on February 25 speaks of his evil intentions which ended with the murder.".