PFI raids: Lawyer association alleges govt of weaponising agencies   

BENGALURU: The All Indian Lawyers’ Association for Justice (AILAJ) has hit out at the government for the raids on Popular Front of India (PFI), stating that it’s a case of weaponising investigative agencies.
The association said the allegations levelled against PFI are “bare, having no reference to any actual incident or crime”. 

AILAJ also pointed out that the countrywide raids took place on the same day that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had sought that court reject an application from ex-RSS member Yashwant Shinde in the 2006 Nanded bomb blast case. Shinde had alleged that several RSS and VHP meetings had discussed plans to bomb several places in the country.

“Weaponisation of the government’s investigative agencies and criminal law could not be clearer, and AILAJ condemns such politically motivated abuse of government machinery, which is also a clampdown on voices speaking up to abuse of state power,” AILAJ president Maitreyi Krishnan said in a statement. 
The association also said that National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials have been quoted as justifying the raids, stating that PFI had links to Dalit organisations. 

“We also believe this is a conscious attempt to spread Islamophobia among the public and demonise Muslims as a community, which is already reeling under an all-out attack by the RSS-BJP, using the state apparatus as state-sponsored mob violence,” said Maitreyi.