Woman With Banned Group PFI Links Arrested For Filming Indore Court Proceedings

Police have arrested a 30-year-old woman having alleged links with the banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) for filming the proceedings of a court during a hearing in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district, an official said today. 

The woman, identified as Sonu Mansuri, later told the police that an advocate had asked her to make the video to be sent to the Islamic outfit PFI and she was given Rs three lakh for the work, Additional Commissioner of Police Rajesh Raghuvanshi told PTI.

During the hearing of a case related to Bajrang Dal leader Tanu Sharma on Saturday, his advocates Amit Pandey and Sunil Vishwakarma noticed the woman shooting the video in court room no. 42 of Indore district court, he said.

"The advocates got suspicious and with the help of women lawyers caught the woman. They then alerted the MG Road police who detained her on Saturday evening and formally arrested her at night," he said.

Mansuri, a resident of Indore, claimed before the police that senior advocate Noorjahan Khan had given her the task of making the video to be sent across to the PFI, the official said.

The woman also told the police that she was given Rs 3 lakh for this work, the official said, adding the money has been recovered.

"Further investigation is on and Sonu is being interrogated to extract more information about her link with the PFI. She will be produced in a court on Sunday afternoon," Raghuvanshi said.

Action will also be taken against advocate Noorjahan Khan if there is substantial evidence, he added.

The Centre had in September 2022 banned the PFI and several of its associates for five years under a stringent anti-terror law, accusing them of having "links" with global terror groups like ISIS and trying to spread communal hatred in the country.

Before the ban, the National Investigating Agency (NIA), the Enforcement Directorate(ED) and various state police forces had carried out raids in a massive pan-India crackdown on the PFI and arrested several of its leaders and activists from various states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.

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