COIMBATORE: A Fast Track Court in Coimbatore on Wednesday upheld the conviction of five activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) on charges of sedition in the city 13 years ago. The judge, who conducted a retrial in the case on the directions of the Madras High Court, also enhanced the penalty imposed on the convicts by a Fast Track Court here in 2004. All the five convicts were set free after they paid the fine amount as they had already spent the punishment term of three years in jail during the course of the trial.A co-accused Abudhakir, who was a minor at the time of committing the said offence, was directed to appear before the Juvenile Justice Board on March to face proceedings under the Juvenile Justice Act. Fast Track Court judge Alamelu Natarajan held that Samimul Islam, Syed Abdul Rahman, Syed Mohammed, Kadar Baba and Shajahan who were arrested in June 1999, by the Special Investigation Team of the Crime Branch-CID were all guilty of the charges framed against them.The police had accused them of circulating an unregistered magazine near a mosque at Cross Cut Road with contents propagating sedation and hatred towards the Indian government. While Shajahan and the minor Abudhakir were accused of distributing the magazine in Coimbatore, the others had held various editorial positions in the magazine published from Chennai.In 2004, Fast Track Court - II here had held all the six persons guilty of committing offences under IPC sections 124(a), 153(a) and 153(b) and sentenced them to three years rigorous imprisonment besides a fine of `2,000 each. Subsequently, all the six had challenged the judgment in the HC which directed the trial court to conduct a fresh trial. After conducting the retrial, the judge pronounced five years imprisonment and revised the penalty amount to `10,000 each.
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