Andhra police flip-flop in case to keep SIMI banned

The Hanuman temple in Kurmaguda, Mandannapet, had been defiled on April 8, 2012, leading to riots. During a hearing in Hyderabad on May 21 and May 22, inspector of police, Special Investigation Team (SIT), Hyderabad, I B Koteshwar Rao deposed that “it is correct that the incidents narrated in my affidavit were preceded by the alleged defiling of a Hindu temple on 08-04-2012” and “an organisation called Hindu Vahini has been charged with the defiling the said temple”. He said the defiling led to communal clashes where members of both communities indulged in stone pelting. “It is correct that I have not mentioned that the incident of defiling of temple was done by Hindu boys to provoke a riot,” Rao said. In fact, Rao admitted that in all four chargesheets produced with his affidavit, he had wrongly “mentioned that the incident was triggered by the defiling of a temple where some Muslims put cow leg pieces in a Hanuman temple to create communal disturbances”.

In his affidavit, Rao had produced four cases regarding “sloganeering” and “stone pelting” during the communal clash. According to the affidavit, 17 persons were identified. It says the SIT investigation “revealed that a mob of over 100 persons had formed an unlawful assembly… purportedly to protest against the incident of some Hindu youth attacking pushcart vendors belonging to Muslim community. The purported attack… was in protest against the alleged defiling by throwing of cow-flesh in Hanuman temple, Kurmaguda, Mandannapet”.

Apart from a group of auto drivers and students, all aged between 19 and 28, Rao said the 17 accused included three former SIMI members — Tarana Fayaz, Syed Ahmed Hussain and Moutasin Billa.

The AP police filed 26 cases in connection with the defiling and the subsequent riots. During the investigation, the police zeroed in on four Hindu Vahini members — Nagaraj, Kiran Kumar, Ramesh alias Chinna, and Dayanand Singh — who had allegedly thrown the limb of a cow inside the temple besides sprinkling green paint on the temple walls.

To substantiate its argument that “SIMI is indulging in activities prejudicial to the integrity and security of the country”, the Centre has provided details of 17 new cases registered against alleged SIMI members since the extension of the ban in February 2012.

Apart from the four communal riot cases from Hyderabad, the other cases include the mob violence at Azad Maidan in Mumbai, crimes such as murder and attempted murder, clashes between different Muslim groups, and a few failed jailbreak attempts in MP and Gujarat.