INDIA. Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids in six states, including Mumbai, as part of a multi-state operation against the activists of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) on Wednesday.
In Mumbai, the searches were conducted at the residence of Abdul Wahid Shaikh, who was acquitted in the July 11, 2006, Mumbai railway bomb blast case, at a chawl at Parksite in Vikhroli in north-east Mumbai. However, Shaikh did not open the door and kept the NIA team waiting for nearly 6 hours.
The NIA team, which reached the venue at about 5.30 am, had to wait until 11.15 am when Shaikh opened the door after his lawyer and some local activists reached the spot. Outside his house, there was a heavy police presence as police personnel asked him to open the door.
Shaikh, who was subsequently acquitted in the July 11, 2006 case, alleged that despite his acquittal, the law enforcement agencies continued to harass him. He was released in 2015 by a Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court as the police couldn’t find any proof for the charges levelled against him. He has been functioning as a “Prisoners Rights Activist” since then.
In an uploaded video, he said that some people claiming to be police personnel came to his residence at 5 am. He added that they neither identified themselves nor gave him any notice. He said that they broke one door and broke his camera.
Shaikh said that he did not open the door since his wife and children are ill. However, the NIA officials maintained that the raid was as per their standing operating procedure.
The NIA added they were searching various locations in multiple states, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi-NCR, to dismantle a PFI module. Apart from Shaikh’s residence, the NIA team searched Bhiwandi, Mumbra in Thane, and other districts in Maharashtra.
The raids were part of action against the banned PFI in connection with a case related to creating a disruption during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bihar last year.
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