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Political Notes

	March 31, 2008

13 top SIMI leaders held in Indore crackdown



Alerted by the Intelligence Bureau, the Madhya Pradesh Police raided several places in Indore at the crack of dawn on Thursday, March 27, and arrested 13 top leaders of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).



Police said these active members of the banned organisation are from states all over the country, including Kerala, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.



Amongst those in the police net are SIMI’s Madhya Pradesh chief Safdar Nagori, his brother Kamruddin Nagori, as also Aamir Pervez, Hafiz Hussain and Shivli.



Inspector General of Police, Indore, Anil Kumar said: ‘’Their names figure in a number of bomb blast cases in other states. Our counterparts in other states have been informed and the details are coming in. After preliminary investigations, we have found that these persons form the apex body of SIMI and were in Indore for their annual meeting. So far, they have confessed that they were reviewing and assessing their activities in the past year and were planning their targets for the next year. They were also planning their future activities including how to train their action teams.’’



Son of a retired police sub-inspector, Safdar Nagori is also wanted in five other criminal cases in Madhya Pradesh, said the police. His family lives in Mahidpur in Ujjain and brother Kamruddin is attached to SIMI activities in both Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the police said.



Hafiz Hussain is SIMI chief in Karnataka and Shivli is the mainstay of SIMI operations in Kerala.



The police was tipped that members of SIMI from different parts of the country had come to Indore and were in a house in Gulzar Colony in the Pithampur industrial area.



Intelligence and state police were keeping a close watch on security in Indore - specially because large crowds take to the streets to celebrate Rang Panchami, the fifth day after Holi.



Police have registered cases against the 13 SIMI leaders and activists for waging war against the state and spreading enmity on grounds of religion.







Gujarat riots : SC orders fresh probe



The post-Godhra violence in Gujarat continued to haunt the Narendra Modi Government with the Supreme Court last week deciding to set up a five-member special investigation team (SIT) to re-investigate the cases.



Apart from three IPS officers from Gujarat - Geeta Johri, Shivanand Jha and Ashish Bhatia - the team would include two retired IPS officers from outside the state - ex-CBI chief R.K. Raghavan and former UP cadre IPS officer C.V. Satpathy.



The formal orders constituting the team were passed by the apex court on Wednesday, March 26, when it took up other connected issues related to the 2002 communal riots.



A bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat, P. Sathasivam and Aftab Alam announced its intention to constitute the SIT after hearing amicus curiae Harish Salve and senior counsel for the Gujarat government Mukul Rohtagi for over one hour on the petition filed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for transferring the probe and trial outside Gujarat.



In 2003, the NHRC had filed the petition for the transfer of the case and trial expressing fears that it would not be conducted in a fair and transparent manner due to the hostile environment encountered by the witnesses, most of whom had turned hostile due to alleged threats and inducements.



These cases mainly related to the gruesome killings of minorities in places like Godhra, Gulmarg Society, Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patya, Sardarpura, ODH and Deepla Darwaza.



Modi had faced a nationwide flak after hundreds of Muslims were killed in the post-Godhra violence allegedly incited by his party men.





Orissa Speaker booked in a sexual harassment case



A sexual harassment case was filed against Orissa Assembly Speaker Maheshwar Mohanty last week by a woman security staff whose allegations rocked the House with opposition members storming the presiding officer’s podium.



The FIR was filed at the Mahila police station in Bhubaneswar by a group of women activists on behalf of Gyatri Panda, the Assistant Marshal, as she was not present there, a day after she accused Mohanty of sexual harassment.



Accusing the Speaker of engaging his staff to persuade her to have sexual relations with him, the FIR alleged that Mohanty often made vulgar gestures at her.



Mohanty has denied the charges claiming it was part of a conspiracy in which influential people were involved to malign him. Panda alleged that some anti-social elements gave her life threat after she levelled the charges against the Speaker in public.



The controversy sparked unprecedented scenes in the Assembly as opposition members, demanding Mohanty’s resignation, laid a siege at the podium preventing Deputy Speaker Prahallad Dora from reaching the Chair. Mohanty had expressed his desire not to preside over proceedings until he emerged clean after a probe by a House committee.



At a news conference, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik rejected the opposition demand for Mohanty’s resignation and an impartial probe by an independent agency.