Guwahati: A 30-year-old woman suspected of having ties to the outlawed Popular Front of India (PFI) was arrested by police for allegedly recording a judicial session in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district on January 29.
The woman identified as Sonu Mansuri, later told police that a lawyer asked her to make the film that was to be sent to the Islamic organisation PFI and that she was paid Rs three lakh for the operation, according to Additional Commissioner of Police Rajesh Raghuvanshi.
During the hearing of a case involving Bajrang Dal leader Tanu Sharma on Saturday, his lawyers Amit Pandey and Sunil Vishwakarma observed the lady filming the video in Indore district court room 42, he claimed.
“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 while talking to the media on January 29.
Mansuri, an Indore resident, informed the police that senior attorney Noorjahan Khan gave her the task of producing the movie to be sent to the PFI.
According to the officer, the woman reportedly admitted to paying the police Rs. 3 lakhs for her work who also noted that the money had been retrieved.
“Sonu is being probed as part of the ongoing inquiry to learn more about her connection to the PFI,” the officer added.
She will appear in court on Sunday afternoon “Raghuvanshi explained. He would also take action against attorney Noorjahan Khan if there was sufficient evidence.
Its needs to be noted that the PFI and some of its supporters were outlawed by the Center in September 2022 for a period of five years under a severe anti-terror law on the grounds that they had “connections” to international terrorist groups like ISIS and fostered sectarian strife in the nation.
Prior to the prohibition, the PFI was the target of widespread pan-Indian searches by the NIA, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and numerous state police organisations. Dozens of its leaders and members from different states were detained on suspicion of supporting terrorism in the country.