New Delhi, February 16 – The Delhi High Court granted bail to M.K. Faizy, the President of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), on Monday. Faizy is an Islamic scholar and political observer who served as a Masjid Imam in the 1980s, in a money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
A single-judge bench, headed by Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, passed the order granting bail to Faizy, also known as Moideen Kutty K. The detailed order of the Delhi High Court granting bail is awaited.
Faizy, one of the founders of the SDPI, was arrested on March 3, 2025, at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
According to the ED, the SDPI functions as the political front of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) and is financially dependent on it for its operations.
The SDPI claims to be an independent organization without any connection to the PFI.
As part of its investigation against the PFI in 2022, the federal anti-money laundering agency linked Faizy to Abdul Razak BP, a PFI leader based in Kerala, who is alleged to have "transferred" two lakh rupees to the SDPI national president as part of the fundraising activities of his organization.
Investigators claim that the SDPI received crores of rupees from the PFI through illegal hawala channels and allegedly funnelled the funds to its units nationwide.
The PFI and its eight affiliates were banned by the Centre in 2022 for fueling radicalization and were involved in terror funding.
Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Delhi, the SDPI is alleged to be the political front of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI). Before the ban on PFI in 2022, simultaneous raids and enforcement action were conducted against it by multiple agencies, including the NIA and various state police forces.
According to officials in the investigative agencies, the organization has "strong" influence in various pockets of Kerala and Karnataka, as well as some other southern Indian states.
