MP Govt Chided by Bhopal Court for Delaying Information on SIMI

Why the court was informed 9 days after the encounter, when repeated statements were made to the media?

The 8 SIMI members who escaped from the prison. (Photo: The Quint/Anant Maheshwari)

On Wednesday, a Bhopal court pulled up the Madhya Pradesh government for a nine-day delay in informing it about the alleged jailbreak of eight suspected Islamists from the SIMI outfit, who were gunned down is controversial and suspicious circumstances in October.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate questioned why the court should believe the government’s account, which seems dubious as it’s only based on the statement of a prison employee, as reported by Hindustan Times.

Media Statements but Why No Official Statement to Courts?

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government will be under more pressure, as it has already been facing accusations of human rights violations from political parties and activists for the operations carried out on 31 October, leading to the death of the eight men.

The undertrial SIMI had been in the Bhopal central jail and under the CrPC, the court where their trial was to be conducted, had to be made aware of the encounter.

Bhubhaskar Yadav, the CJM asked why the court was informed nine days later of the encounter when the government and police officers made repeated statements to the media about it.

The government announcing a probe meant it was yet to arrive at a conclusion about the alleged jailbreak, said Yadav.

The encounter brought up several contradictions that have made the Opposition, rights activists and families of the men to demand a probe by a sitting Supreme Court or high court judge.

SIMI Men Allege Assault in Jail

A local court on Wednesday allowed the lawyer of five SIMI activists in judicial custody to meet them after he alleged they were beaten up by guards following the escape of eight other members of the banned organisation from prison before being killed in an alleged police encounter last month.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Bhubhaskar Yadav gave permission to advocate Parvez Alam to meet Adil, Irfan, Javeed, Zuber and Mohammed Sadiq at Bhopal Central Jail.

Alam alleged in his application that these five men were beaten up by jail guards after the other eight SIMI activists escaped from the jail on the intervening night of 30 and 31 October after allegedly killing a jail warden.

The five SIMI activists had gone on hunger strike after the incident, he said. Alam represented the eight slain SIMI accused too.

(Source: Hindustan Times, PTI)