High court dismisses plea for de-sealing SIMI office

The Delhi High Court Tuesday dismissed a plea of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) to de-seal a south Delhi property which housed its office when the central governmnt banned the outfit in 2001 for alleged involvement in terrorist activities.

The Delhi High Court Tuesday dismissed a plea of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) to de-seal a south Delhi property which housed its office when the central governmnt banned the outfit in 2001 for alleged involvement in terrorist activities.

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Justice S. Muralidhar dismissed the SIMI's plea for de-sealing the house number 151-C at Lane 9 in Zakir Nagar.

While opposing the desealing plea, a home ministry director in an affidavit stated that municipal records showed the house belonged to Habibullah Siddiqui, and neither the SIMI nor its president Shahid Badar Falahi had any claim to the building.

Following the central government ban on the outfit in 2001, Falahi was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and since then the office has remained locked.

The ban on the organisation was lifted in August 2008 but the building has remained sealed.

"The house is in an utter state of neglect with no guard to restrict unauthorised admission and prevent trespass," SIMI activists said in their petition.

Their petition said: "The windows are broken, the iron gates have long been ripped off their hinges and taken away and paint is peeling off the red brick concrete fa?ade. A plan for a second storey seems to have been aborted, half-way through."