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Five convicted for sedition in Kerala

The court exonerated 11 accused saying that the prosecution could not establish the charges against them beyond doubt.

Trivandrum: A special court of National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the south Indian state of Kerala on Wednesday convicted five persons for sedition.
They were among 17 people who had attended a secret camp organised by outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India (Simi) at Panayikulam near North Paravur in Ernakulam district on August 15, 2006.
Three of the convicts, who are also accused in the Ahmedabad blast case, have been found guilty of offences under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and three under Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on Thursday.
The court exonerated 11 accused saying that the prosecution could not establish the charges against them beyond doubt. While one accused had turned approver, the trial of another, who is a minor, is being conducted separately in the Kakkanad Juvenile Justice Court.
The court prosecution case was that accused 1-5, P A Shaduly, Abdul Rasik, Ansar, Nizamuddin and Shammas had entered into a criminal conspiracy in Ernakulam and other places to "advocate, incite, abet unlawful activities of cession of Kashmir from India and to bring hatred and contempt towards the Government of India.
The police had arrested the convicts following a raid at an auditorium at Panayikulam. The raid was conducted on the basis of information received by Binanipuram police station sub-inspector K N Rajesh that a group was planning anti-national activities.
On visiting the spot, a team led by him found some of the participants in the meeting making inflammatory speeches. Books and pamphlets which were pro-Pakistani, anti-government, seditious and provocative in content with the aim of creating religious animosity were also seized.
However, the Kerala police let them off without a proper perusal of the case. The case was pursued after the government handed over the investigation to the NIA following the killing of four youths from the state in an encounter with Indian Army in Kashmir in 2008.
The case assumed serious dimension after investigators pursuing the terror attacks in Jaipur and Ahmedabad found the involvement of some people who had participated in the secret camp at Panayikulam and another at Vagamon in Kottayam district in the blasts.
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