SIMI chief, 10 others get life sentence in sedition case

Indore: A special court on Monday awarded life imprisonment to SIMI chief Safdar Hussain Nagori and 10 other activists of the banned group after convicting them in a 2008 case of sedition.

On a plea of 10 of the accused lodged in Ahmedabad's Sabarmati Central Jail, they were informed about the court's judgement through video-conferencing.

Special Additional Sessions Judge B K Paloda pronounced all the 11 activists of Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) guilty under IPC sections 124(A) (sedition) and 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), and also under relevant provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Besides 45-year-old Nagori (45), the others convicted are Hafiz Hussain (35), Aamil Parvaz (40), Shivli (38), Qamruddin (42), Shahduli (32), Qamran (40), Ansar (35), Ahmed Baig (32), Yasin (35) and Munroz (40).

Nagori, Parvaz, Qamruddin, Qamran, Shivli and Ahmed Baig and Hussain were also convicted under IPC section 122 (collecting arms, etc, with intention of waging war against the government of India).

Government advocate Vimal Mishra told reporters that apart from Munroz, the other 10 accused are lodged in Ahmedabad's Sabarmati jail.

During last hearing in the case, they had appealed to the court that they should not be brought to Indore during the pronouncement of the judgement and that they should be informed about the order through video-conferencing facility.

Their plea was accepted by the court.

Mishra said Munroz was on bail since a long time. He appeared in the court during the pronouncement of the judgement today. After being pronounced guilty, he was taken to the Indore Centre Jail from the court.

The 11 SIMI activists were arrested from Indore on the intervening night of May 26-27, 2008, and pistols, cartridges, veils and inflammatory literature were seized from them.

On their information, a large cache of explosive material was also recovered.