The Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) mastermind Safdar Nagori and 10 other operatives have been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Indore District Court on February 27. Earlier on February 17, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court has directed all the eleven accused to be in court in person on Feb 21 to record their statements.
The prosecution witnesses in the trial concluded on Tuesday with the testimony of investigating officer BPS Parihar.
All the eleven accused were lodged at Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad and were then brought to Indore for the next hearing. In the past hearings, the prosecution witness Parihar was cross-examined while the accused were presented to the court via video conferencing on account of security issues regarding transportation of the accused to Indore.
On March 28, 2008, SIMI mastermind Safdar Nagori, along with 10 others, was arrested by the STF from Indore. During interrogation, Nagori opened up and told everything about the location of the farmhouse which was used to train other SIMI operatives. The police later searched the farmhouse and recovered many illegal weapons, explosives and ammunitions from there including SIMI literature and pamphlets bearing anti-national slogans.
Charges like possession of illegal arms and explosives and anti-national material were imposed on the arrested SIMI operatives. The witnesses in the trial have also testified that had the operatives not been arrested, they would have instigated a terror attack soon.
