17 SIMI members sentenced to three-year imprisonment for raising anti-national slogans

Bhopal: A Bhopal court on Thursday sentenced 17 activists of outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India to three years in jail for hurting religious feelings and committing other penal offences. [caption id=“attachment_3750469” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Chief Judicial Magistrate Rakesh Sharma also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 each on convicts Abu Faizal, Majid Nagauri, Sajid alias Guddu, Irfan Nagauri, Umair Sadique, Mohammad Adil, Khalid Ahmad, Abdul Wahid, Javed Nagauri, Abdul Aziz, Zubair Israr, Ahmad, Mohammad Habib, Mohammad Sajid, Aqueel, Rafique and Abdullah. They were convicted of various penal offences including those for committing deliberate and malicious acts to outrage religious feelings and making imputations and assertions prejudicial to the national integration. The sentence was pronounced via video-conferencing. The accused had raised controversial slogans in the Bhopal district court’s premises on 17 May, 2014. According to the prosecution, they shouted slogans like “Taliban Zindabad, Islam Zindabad, Pakistan Zindabad, Allahu Akbar, from Palestine to Afghanistan and Pakistan, our rule will come, we have been sent by Allah for this purpose.” Besides, they shouted, “Ab Modi ki bari hai” (Now, it’s Modi’s turn) apparently referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the prosecution. The 17 SIMI activists are lodged in Bhopal Central Jail and are being tried in different cases for the last couple of years.