NIA charge-sheets 30 SIMI cadres

Thirty active cadres of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) were on Thursday charge-sheeted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the December 2007 Gagamon SIMI arms training case.

All the accused are charged with involvement in various terrorists cases in the country, including the Ahmedabad serial blast case of 2008.

The NIA, in its charge-sheet before CBI special court judge S Vijay Kumar, said: ?The camp was conducted with an intention to train the participants to advocate, incite and abet unlawful terrorist activities, disrupt communal harmony and causing threat to the sovereignty and integrity of the country, thereby waging war against lawfully established Government of India.?

The charges have been framed under various sections of IPC, including 124-A (sedition), 122 (Collecting arms etc. with intention of waging war against the Government of India, 153-1 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) and (120-B) criminal conspiracy.

Twenty-nine of the accused are in the Sabarmati jail, Ahmedabad, while one is absconding.

The role of seven other suspects will be further investigated by the NIA.

A conspiracy to run training camps for active cadres was hatched in Choral, Madhya Pradesh, in November 2007, NIA probe has revealed.

Camps were conducted at Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

NIA has claimed that evidence has been gathered to prove that the accused were engaged in physical training, arms training, firing practice, manufacture of petrol bombs, motor bike racing and rope climbing in the camp.

Classes on ?Jihad in India? were also held in the camp.

Of the 30 accused, four are from Kerala, 9 from Karnataka, 10 from Gujarat, 8 from Madhya Pradesh, 2 from Jharkhand, 3 from Uttar Pradesh and one from Maharashtra.