Tribunal to decide on extending Simi ban

A special tribunal constituted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) presided at the Bombay high court on Friday to record evidence of six police officers.

The tribunal, which will continue hearing on Saturday, will decide if the ban implemented on Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) can be lifted or not.

The Tribunal presided over by Justice Sanjay Khanna of Delhi high court, recorded evidence of six police officers on Friday. Sunil Mane, Uday Singh Rathod, Rehmatullah Sayed, Atul Sabnis, Vinod Damodar Pratap and Milind Chitle have been involved in the investigation of terrorist activities in the state.

The officers deposed before the tribunal and presented evidence on cases registered against Simi members, justifying the need for the ban to be extended.

Representing Simi, advocate Mobin Akhtar said the officers highlighted the terrorist activities of accused Simi members involved in the Malegaon blasts and the 2006 serial train blasts. “But there was no evidence of their connection with Simi in the charge sheets except the confessional statements,” he said.

The tribunal was set up to hear complaints on the extension of the ban on SimiI for two more years by the Union government on February 2010. The organisation was first banned in September 2001 for its suspected links with terrorist activities. The ban was extended in 2003 and 2006.

Sources said that the tribunal was going to cities as under UAPA, an organisation can be banned for a maximum of two years, after which the government needs to go to the tribunal to get the ban extended.

Simi has been accused of carrying out bomb blasts across India, including the 2006 train bombing and the blasts in Malegaon. Police had arrested Simi members and charged them with carrying out these attacks.

The members of the organisation have also been accused of being part of several bombings in Mumbai, in 2003, in which more than 50 were killed.