NIA apprehends top Kerala PFI leader

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 28 (IANS) A month after the Popular Front of India (PFI) was banned and its top leadership arrested, an NIA team nabbed its former secretary C.A. Rauf from his house at Pattambi in Palakkad district of Kerala early on Friday.

Considered a hugely influential leader among the cadres of the now-banned organisation, Rauf was in hiding for a while.

Based on a tip-off, the Kochi team of the NIA reached Rauf's residence in the middle of the night and took him into custody.

Dressed in a white shirt and a white dhoti, Rauf was seen carrying a small white bag and waved out to his family while being taken away by the probe agency officials.

He has been taken to the Kochi office of the NIA and being questioned.