The NIA on Thursday informed the tribunal handling matters related to the ban on Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) that the outfit was still actively present in Kerala. In a report submitted to
the tribunal which started its three-day sitting in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, the agency said that Students Islamic Movement of India had involvement in at least three cases it was probing in the State.
NIA told the tribunal that it had evidences of SIMI's involvement in the cases relating to recruitment of young
Keralites to LeT for training and operation in Kashmir in 2008, the extremist camp at Panayaikkulam near Kochi in 2006, the terror training programme in Vagamon, Idukki in 2007 and the seizure of pamphlets from Kozhikode. However, Mohin Aktar who appeared before the tribunal as counsel for former SIMI workers denied the NIA's allegations. “These are all false charges with no connection to SIMI. These are only submissions
in the tribunal which will not stand before the court of law,” the lawyer said. The Kerala Government had earlier submitted its report regarding SIMI's presence demanding continuance of the 11-year-old ban on the outfit in
the context of its continued presence in the State. A report prepared by the Internal Security Wing said that though the police had not come across incidents of secret meetings, raids had yielded pamphlets and other materials. It also said that investigations carried out after the incident of the chopping off of the right hand of a college professor in July, 2010 had found the presence of SIMI in a minimum of eight incidents that took place after 2008. It is said that most activists of the SDPI, the organisation responsible for the hand-chopping
incident, were former SIMI operatives. The report said that SIMI could be active in the State in the form of other organizations and that its presence was possible in certain mainstream political parties. According to the police, the recent incident of leakage of a police letter to the Press regarding a move to snoop on certain email accounts points to the presence of extremists in the State. The Kerala Government and the NIA would present
their further arguments before the tribunal on Friday. A decision on whether the 11-yearlong ban on SIMI should be continued would be taken after the three-day sitting in Thiruvananthapuram and in three other States.
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