Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 11 (IANS) The banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) Tuesday told a special tribunal of the Delhi High Court that the government had no fresh evidence against it to extend the ban while the police said the group continued to be active under other names.
Moving three applications before Justice Sanjiv Khanna, counsel for SIMI Mobin Akhtar said: “The fresh notification (to extend the ban) was issued before the expiry of the earlier notification and so it is bad in law.”

SIMI also objected to the government’s submission that confessional statements by the alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorists was admissible and said: “The government can only rely on that evidence on the basis of which they have issued the fresh notification.”

Earlier in the day, Additional Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav deposed before the court that SIMI was still active under various other names.

“Despite the ban since 2001, the organisation is still not silent,” Yadav said.

“SIMI has floated new outlets despite the ban,” Yadav added.

L.M. Rao, another police officer, told the court: “The activities of SIMI encouraged dissatisfaction against India and spread communal hatred and created disharmony against the state.”

The court then issued notice to the government and asked them to file their reply by June 4.

SIMI has been declared an unlawful association under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 by the ministry of home affairs.

The organisation was first proscribed in September 2001 for its suspected links with terrorist activities. The ban was extended in 2003 and 2006.

The tribunal was set up to hear complaints on the extension of the ban on SIMI for two more years by the central government in February 2010.