Delhi riots accused bought Ola cab used by CFI members to visit Hathras

By Anand Singh

New Delhi, April 1 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Ola cab, which the four Campus Front of India (CFI) and Popular Front of India (PFI) members used for visiting Uttar Pradesh's Hathras gangrape victim family was not "hired" but was bought just 10 days before by Mohammad Alam, brother-in-law of Mohammad Danish, who has been named as an accused in the February 2020 northeast Delhi riots.

The revelations have been made in the first charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the PFI case against CFI National General Secretary KA Rauf Sherif and several others in February this year.

The ED in its charge sheet claimed that Sherif in his statement to the financial probe agency stated that the CFI was involved in student strengthening programmes, career development programs and engaged in public programs related to student matters.

It said that hence, "it is clear that the purported visit of the CFI delegation including Atikur Rahman, Masud Ahmed, Sidhiquie Kappan and Mohammad Alam was not related to student matter and was with an ulterior motive to foment trouble and instigate violence".

The ED charge sheet, which has been viewed by IANS, claimed that Rahman in his statement stated that he received money from Sherif in his bank account on the night of October 4 last year. A day later, he hired a taxi to visit Hathras with Kappan and Ahmed, as delegation of the CFI.

In his statement, Ahmed said that Sherif and Rahman asked him to visit Hathras to meet the victim's family. Ahmed met Rahman at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi and from there Rahman booked the Ola cab for Hathras. They payment for the cab was done by Rahman as Ahmed didn't had money.

The ED said, similarly, Kappan admitted that he went to Kalindi Kunj, where Ahmed and Rahman were waiting, to travel to Hathras. Kappan said in his statement that all the three persons were to share the cab fare.

Highlighting the role of Alam, who drove the car, the ED said, his taxi was booked through Ola app for Hathras and to avoid the commission to the cab aggregator, he cancelled the online booking and took the booking at a fix amount.

The ED said, "Alam also stated that the car was bought by Maqsood, a relative of his brother-in-law Danish, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad for Rs 2.225 lakh and it was to be paid by him in installments of Rs 17,000."

The ED said that Danish was interrogated by the Delhi Police Special Cell and during his questioning disclosed that he was a member of the PFI since 2018 and was involved in the conspiracy of the February 2020 northeast Delhi riots.

The ED said, "Call data records of the mobile phone numbers of Rahman and Alam revealed that they were in constant touch of Danish."

It said, "Investigation revealed that the car used by them to travel to Hathras was bought just 10 days prior to their scheduled visit to Hathras. Alam in his statement said that the payment for buying the car was made in cash and the agreement for sale was made in his name."

The ED said that the statements of the four accused "establish" the fact that they "intentionally gave false statements about booking the cab through Ola and lied that they did not know taxi driver Alam".

"This cash appears to be part of the unaccounted money and proceeds of crime which was either transferred by Sherif and his associates to Rahman and Ahmed or the amount collected by Ahmed and others in the name of and for the purpose of opposing the government, fomenting trouble, inciting communal feelings and inciting violence.

The ED alleged that to ensure that no outside person or evidence was involved in the commission of offence, the accused persons, in a pre-planned manner, bought the car for the specific purpose and also ensured that it was driven by a relative of the PFI member or activist.

The Uttar Pradesh Police had arrested the four people from near Mathura on October 5 last year.

Source: IANS