Sleuths look into NDF fund sources

There is a
feeling that some organizations functioning in as cultural outfits in
the State could be mere fronts of the NDF for receiving funds without
violating the regulations on this. Officials suspect that the Islamic
Youth Centre, originally headquartered at Bank Road, Kozhikode could have been such a front.

Islamic
Youth Centre was floated as a cultural outfit and had been authorized
to receive funds for its functions. Even after the office of the centre
was moved into Unity Centre, the headquarters of the NDF, the original
facility had been kept intact. Intelligence officials, in this context,
have started efforts to find out whether money received through this
outfit had been used to fund the operations of the NDF.

The
Intelligence searches follow the reports that NDF has been getting
abundant funds to finance its operations. CPI(M) State secretary
Pinarayi Vijayan had recently shared the Sangh Pariwar worries about
the sources of funds of the NDF. He said that the investigation
agencies of the State and the Central Governments should find out from
where NDF was getting the funds and how it was bale to fulfill the
needs of its workers.

The Islamist organization has other
institutions like Green Valley in Manjeri, Malappuram, and a newspaper
and a fortnightly magazine in the name of Thejas, which the
organization says are funded by contributions made by workers and
well-wishers. However, the Intelligence officials are not ready to
believe this.

The Sangh Pariwar and the CPI(M) are not the only
organizations which are worried about the source of NDF funds. KM
Shaji, State president of the Muslim Youth League, the Indian Union
Muslim League’s youth wing, says that the Islamist organization has
immense funds with it.

Sources in the State and Central Home
departments say that several official oversights could have helped NDF
and other such organizations to amass funds for their operations. The
permission to receive funds for cultural and humanitarian activities
for cultural outfits is renewed by the Government every time after a
review of the working report of the outfit for three years.

There
are allegations that the concerned officials might not have been
studying such reports before renewing permission but mere filing of
such reports was being seen as the condition for renewing permission.

Officials
would now be looking closely into the accounts of outfits like the
Islamic Youth Centre. The Union Home Department had already reported
that Islamic Youth Centre was one of the several outfits floated by
former SIMI workers after the ban of the organization in 2001.