The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has, on Tuesday, informed the court that the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) had a secret wing to prepare a hit list of leaders of a particular community.

The NIA said the secret wing had a state-wide network and was responsible for data collection and the preparation of the list of targets. This secret service was based in the PFI offices.

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The agency made the disclosure in a report filed before the NIA Special Court, Kochi, while seeking extension of the remand period of 14 PFI activists arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in September.  Based on the request by the NIA, the court extended the judicial custody of the accused up to 180 days.

In its report to the court, the NIA also said some of the victims of the murder carried out by the PFI had no association or any previous engagement with the organisation.

They were randomly selected by the leadership in order to send a message of terror to society, the NIA alleges in its report.

The NIA also informed the court that the investigations have found that some of the PFI leaders/cadres propagated the ideology of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and had joined such organisations. The links of the PFI leaders to ISIS were revealed in the digitised documents seized in the nationwide raid, the report further said.

The agency told the court that investigations revealed that the banned organisation had indulged in suspicious fund transactions, which had been used for anti-national activities.

Following multiple raids across the country and arrests by the Central agencies, the PFI and allied organizations were banned for five years by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on 28 September for its alleged links to terror funding. On 22 and 27 September, the NIA and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids on the PFI offices and residents of the PFI leaders across the country.

Meanwhile, the NIA will take over the probe into the murder of RSS activist A Sreenivasan, who was killed  at Melmuri in Palakkad on 16 April, allegedly by PFI workers. The Union Home Ministry is learnt to have directed the NIA to take over the probe into the murder.