Accused get no lawyers, remanded to 14-day custody

The SIMI activists, including all-India chief Safdar Nagori, were produced before CJM S S Thakur amid tight security. But the hearing lasted barely 15 minutes with most of the time taken in identifying the activists who were unmasked before the magistrate.

The District Bar Association held an impromptu meeting in the court premises and passed a resolution banning any of its 300 members from appearing for the accused. “The decision has been taken in the interest of the nation and the society,’ the resolution said.

A large crowd of BJP Yuva Morcha had gathered in the court premises forcing the police to take extra precaution. The Morcha activists raised slogans and burnt an effigy of Nagori. Before the remand proceedings began, the police pressed into service a dog squad to look for explosives in the premises, including the court.

The activists are from Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Except Nagori, who is in his late 30s all others are aged between 20 and 30. “They looked composed and offered to cooperate with the police,” district prosecution officer Ashok Chourey told The Indian Express.

The Madhya Pradesh Police had arrested the activists from a flat in Indore on Thursday where they had gathered for their annual meeting. The IB had tipped the MP Police about the presence of SIMI activists wanted in connection with several cases of blasts across the nation in the last few years.

The police first looked for the activists in and around the industrial town of Pithampur on Wednesday and succeeded in nabbing them from a rented flat. As many as 13 pistols, cash and cartridges were recovered from the activists who could not offer any resistance as they were asleep.

Dhar SP Chanchal Shekhar said the case was not registered in Indore, from where the activists were held, but in Pithampur because the original information was that they could be hiding in the industrial town.