Cracking down further on the terror activities of the Popular Front of India (PFI), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has attached one of the oldest and largest arms and physical training centres of the banned outfit in Kerala, CNN-News18 has learnt. This is the sixth PFI arms training centre and the 18th property of the outfit to be attached by the NIA in the state as “proceeds of terrorism” under the provisions of the UA(P) Act. The NIA had, on 17th March 2023, filed a chargesheet against 59 accused, including the PFI as an organisation, in the case (RC-02/2022/NIA/KOC).
As part of its continuing investigations into the case, the NIA has now attached this training centre spread over 10 hectares. Sources said the Green Valley Academy, Manjeri, Kerala, is managed by Green Valley Foundation (GVF) and was used by the cadres of the National Development Front and subsequently by the PFI into which it merged.
According to sources, the PFI had been using the property for imparting arms training, physical training, and training on the use and testing of explosives to its cadres, identified to be part of their “service wing”. The facility was also used to harbour several “PFI service wing” members after they committed crimes, including murders. The centre was allegedly further being used to impart the radical and rabid type of ideological training in the PFI’s divisive and communal agenda and policies to its trained operatives, cadres, and members. Offices of the PFI and its frontal organisations were functioning from these premises under the guise of educational institutions.
The five other PFI training centres attached previously by the NIA in Kerala were Malabar House, Periyar Valley, Valluvanad House, Karunya Charitable Trust, and Trivandrum Education and Service Trust (TEST). Another 12 PFI offices, allegedly used by the outfit’s leadership intermittently to organise training in arms and physical training, ideological propagation, and training for the commission of various crimes, including murders and terrorist acts, have also been attached.
The NIA’s investigations have revealed that the PFI has been running many such training centres in the guise of charitable and educational trusts formed by the organisation’s members or leaders, said sources. Investigations have also revealed that the PFI had hired several buildings for running its training camps and activities relating to terror and violence, they added.
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