By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: The happiness of five alleged former members of banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) proved short-lived. They were released from Ujjain district’s Khachrod sub-jail, under the amnesty provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Government, on Republic Day.
But in an unprecedented move, the state government has decided to send them back to jail.
The BJP-ruled state, under the pressure from Bajrang Dal and opposition Congress party, has revoked the release order on Friday evening after making changes in the amnesty provisions.
TwoCirclres.net was among the first to break the news of release of ex-SIMI members Zadeel Parvez, Ayaz alias Ashu, Akbar Kha, Meheruddin and Irshad Ali, and the consequent protest from Sangh outfit and Congress. On 2nd of February, the saffron organizations started protesting against what was a very much legally acceptable step by the department of Jail, Madhya Pradesh.
According to the Ujjain Range Inspector General of Police, Upendra Jain, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 has also been added among sections, which will be out of the scope of annual amnesty provisions. Consequently, the five SIMI activists who were jailed under this Act and were released under the amnesty provisions must be sent back to jail, he said.
Interestingly the revocation order has come after saffron organizations like Bajrang Dal and the Congress party demanded the re-arrest of the alleged former SIMI members and a detailed enquiry into the episode of their release.
In fact the whole episode of release of the SIMI members created so much of media hype and hullabaloo that the state government also fired Principal Secretary (Jails), Sudesh Kumar from his charge and suspended Khachrod Jailer, Sanjeev Gandle.
The said 5 members of SIMI were arrested on March 31, 2008 for allegedly possessing some “anti-national literature” and “weapons” and were in judicial custody since then. They were sentenced to five-year imprisonment by a local court in Ujjain on January 12, 2011.
“If general prisoners can be released under the amnesty laws then why can’t the allegedly SIMI members be treated as per the law?” This was how Shaid Badr Falahi, the former SIMI president reacted to the revocation order.
Condemning the move as “witch hunting,” he said that just because the alleged 5 people used to be associated with SIMI, singling them out of amnesty laws is nothing short of “state terror.”
Mr. Falahi also added that “this is the worst kind of double standard that the Congress has been practicing, because on the one hand its central leaders like Digvijay Singh talk about justice to Muslim youths falsely implicated in terror cases on the other hand they are singling out allegedly former members of SIMI for witch hunting.”
“This also indicates how the Congress will behave when it comes to the issue of justice to the youths falsely implicated in terror cases,” Mr. Falahi added.
He appealed to the civil society and human rights organization to stand up against this kind of state act.