By TCN Staff Reporter,
Thiruvananthapuram: The Delhi High Court tribunal looking into the ban on SIMI [Students Islamic Movement of India] completed its hearing in Kerala on Friday, with Anandu Krishnan IPS-the Nodal Officer who appeared for the state govt demanding extension of the ban.
The NIA officer GV Ramanayya who investigated on the SIMI Vagomon camp and Kozhikode Town station SI Sasidharan Chaliyil were present before the tribunal to submit their evidences on the SIMI activities in the state.
The state submitted a book captured from a Kozhikode based publishing house as the main evidence in support of their accusations regarding SIMI activities in the state. The nodal officer argued before the tribunal that, the book found on raid named ‘Islamum Desheeyathayum’ [Islam and nationality], promotes communalism and anti-nationalism and the publishing house named ‘Nanma Books’ which published this book belongs to the Thiruvananthapuram based ‘Nanma Trust’ and he further alleged that the trust is under the direct control of SIMI activists.
SIMI’s counsel Mr Mubeen Akthar opposed this statement and said that the book until now is not banned anywhere in India and so he said, “the state is making baseless allegations against SIMI”. Police have captured the Malayalam version of the book published in foreign language and besides, this book is available online and any one could download and read it any time, Adv. Akthar said.
He stated that the Police are still unable to prove any links between the Thiruvananthapuram based ‘Nanma Trust’ and Kozhikode based ‘Nanma Books’.
Another book which the state presented in support of their claim was the Malayalam version of Tehelka Editor Ajit Sahi’s book named ‘SIMI Fiction’. In response to this the SIMI advocate stated that as the book is not banned and there is no case against the author Ajit Sahi, there is nothing wrong in publishing or reading it.
The Nodal Officer’s another argument was regarding the SIMI related information traced from an hard disk captured on the Police raid at ‘Other Books’ [a publishing house at Calicut]. But the state was unable to present either the hard disk or the SIMI related documents which they traced. During the cross examination, Adv Mubeen Akthar brought this fact into the tribunal’s notice.
NIA officer GV Ramanayya in his report before the tribunal stated that SIMI conducted training sessions at Vagamon camp using air guns and petrol bombs. He added that weapons were brought to the camp in a Scorpio car.
SIMI advocate questioned the genuineness of his statement as the FIR was submitted only after six months of the so called training and the accused were in jails outside the state three months prior to preparation of the FIR. The Scorpio car mentioned in the FIR was captured only after one and half years since the Vagamon camp. “It is tough to believe that the investigative officers traced evidences of explosives carried in the Scorpio car that too after one and half years of the incident”, said Adv. Akhtar.
The hearing was supposed to continue on Saturday as well but with the witness statements being completed on Friday itself, the sitting was adjourned. The tribunal will continue its sitting on 14th and 15th of May at Udaypur in Rajasthan.