The Enforcement Directorate Sources on Wednesday told The Daily Guardian that initial investigations in Hathras case have “indicated financial support for violent protests by a suspected organization”. According to sources, a funding of Rs 50 crore has been made to PFI from Mauritius. According to sources, the organisation has received funding of more than Rs 100 crore, out of which Rs 50 crors have been sent from Mauritius alone.
According to sources, the website was used as a platform to raise foreign funds on the same lines as the antiCAA violence in Delhi. Now, the ED will inquire about foreign links and collect money and the details of its usage will also be detected from the domain servers.
Sources said that the ED will also investigate the final beneficiaries of the funds collected by this website. The service provider will be questioned about the website that hosted its page because it must essentially record the IP address from where the web page was launched. On 6 October Senior ED Officer told The Daily Guardian that “The Enforcement Directorate Sources said that they have receives documents from UP Police. We are examining all the documents and FIR and police authorities are in touch with us.”
All the activities done through the website are now under investigation. Misleading and objectionable posts were made. The campaign for Justice for Hathras was conducted through this website. The police of Hathras have also registered a case under section 153A in this case. The section of PMLA also applies in this section. Once the ED takes forward the investigation in this matter, many things can be revealed about foreign funding. In which things such as who got money, who gave it and where it came from, through web portals will be tested.
During this time the help of many such agencies will be taken, which are able to connect the wires like checking the IP address, email ID, phone number, website, web link. The web platform which is targeted in this case is mainly American based.
ED is also looking at whether the same PFI individuals, who were examined during Delhi riots, are involved in spreading fake propaganda. And whether at all any money was received by certain portals influenced by PFI and SDPI.