Centre places additional evidence in SC on SIMI ban

NEW DELHI: The Centre today placed additional evidence in the Supreme Court to buttress its contention that banned outfit Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) has been involved in subversive activities for several years.

A day after it was clarified by the apex court that the matter relating SIMI will be taken up for hearing on August 25, the Centre, in an affidavit filed before a bench headed by Justice B N Aggarwal, said investigations into the recent blast cases have thrown up sufficient evidence to justify continuation of the ban on the organisation.

The government, which had secured a stay on the order of a special tribunal lifting ban on SIMI, contended that if the unlawful activities of the organisation were not curbed and controlled immediately, it would continue with its subversive activities.

"If SIMI is not banned it would reorganise its activists/members who are still absconding, disrupt the secular fabric of the country by polluting the minds of the people by creating communal disharmony, propagate anti-national sentiments," the Centre said in its affidavit.

The Centre said that, inspite of ban, the banned outfit is continue to exist and its activities are being carried on, upon which the Tribunal had also observed that "the organisation is existing and is carrying on its activities clandestinely cannot be simply brushed aside."

Contending that SIMI is resorting to violence in the name of 'Jihad', the Centre said that the outfit had "extended full support to extremists and terrorists in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir and have been involved in various militant and disruptive activities in other states such as Maharashtra, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu."