CFI member Rauf Sharif funded Kerala scribe Kappan’s Hathras trip: ED

KA Rauf Sharif, a member of Campus Front of India, who was arrested on Saturday, was the recipient of huge funds in his bank accounts through suspicious transactions, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told to a court in Kochi on Sunday.

The ED’s remand report said Sharif had funded the trip of Delhi-based Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan and three others to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh where a young Dalit girl had died after a brutal rape, drawing nationwide outrage.

The three others who accompanied Kappan were Atiq-ur Rehman, Masood Ahmed and Alam.

Also read: Kerala journalist, 3 others held on way to Hathras slapped with second sedition case

Rauf Sharif, a native of Kollam, is the current national general secretary of Campus Front, the student’s wing of Popular Front of India. Kappan was detained by the UP Police along with CFI national treasurer Ateequr Rahman and Masood Ahmed, both students of Jamia Millia Islamia University and UP natives, on their way to Hathras on October 4.

Sharif allegedly received ₹ 2.5 crore foreign remittances in his accounts during COVID-19 lockdown period. He was not in Oman, where he was working, at that time but was in India, the ED said.

The remand report says that Siddique Kappan was a journalist in PFI mouthpiece ‘Thejas’ and covered events organized by CFI and PFI. Kappan is currently lodged in jail in UP, sources said.

The ED took up the investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on the case related to setting up of a terrorist camp at Narath in Kannur by PFI and SDPI activists. During the investigation, the agency found the role of Rauf Sharif and a mention about him in the FIR registered by UP Police in the Hathras case.

According to UP Police, mobile phones, laptops and suspicious literature with potential to disturb social harmony and incite communal riots were recovered from Kappan and three others, including Ateequr Rahman and Mahmood Ahmad. Sources said Rauf Sharif has not divulged any details of foreign remittances or about his role in the visit of CFI members to Hathras. He reportedly did not cooperate with the investigation.

Also read: Hathras shame: A crime aggravated by bizarre theories and a cover-up