Nagori, 10 other SIMI activists get life imprisonment

BHOPAL/INDORE: Eleven Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activists, including former SIMI national general secretary Safdar Nagori, were given life terms by a special court in Indore on Monday.

Public prosecutor Vimal Kumar Mishra and special judge BK Paloda read out the judgment to the accused over video conferencing.

Of the accused, 10 are lodged in Sabarmati jail. The 11th, Munroz Jaman, was on bail and was taken into custody.

Apart from Nagori, others who were sentenced were Kamruddin Nagori, the Madhya Pradesh president of SIMI who hails from Ujjain; Kamran, a resident of Khandwa; Ameel Parvez, a resident of Unhel, Ujjain; Peedical Shiblee, a big name in the national-level SIMI organisation; his brother Shaduli Peedical; Hafiz Hussain, the Karnataka state chief of SIMI; Mohammad Yasin of Belgaum, who is a member of the Karnataka SIMI unit; Mirza Ahmed Baig; Munroz Jaman, and Khalid Ahmed.

All the accused were arrested from Shyam Nagar in Indore in March 27, 2008, by a joint team of Indore and Dhar police.

At the time of their arrest, police had recovered seven pistols and 32 live cartridges of 9mm, two computers, numerous discs, nine mobile phones, ₹45,000 in cash, 15 masks and surgical equipment.

They also found newspaper clippings of various train blasts, including the Samjhauta blast.

Later, the cops seized explosives, some more ammunition and inflammatory literature from a farmhouse in Choral near Indore, where a terror camp had been organised to train the SIMI

activists in horse riding, shooting, close combat and on the SIMI ideology.

Nagori, who hails from Mahidpur in Ujjain and has a Masters degree in journalism from Vikram University, was the SIMI linchpin and carried a reward of ₹50,000 at the time of his arrest. He was absconding since September 2001.

Giving details of the conviction, the public prosecutor said the accused were given three life terms under Section 122 and Section 124 (a) of the IPC dealing with anti-national activity, and under Section 4 of the Explosives Act.

They were given three years in jail under the Arms Act and varying jail terms under other sections of the Prevention of Unlawful Activity Act, 1967. All the sentences will run concurrently.