Gujarat police arrest former SIMI chief Shahid Badr in Azamgarh

Azamgarh: A police team from Gujarat has arrested Shahid Badr, former chief of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), from his house in Manchoba area in this district of Uttar Pradesh.

Shahid was arrested late Thursday night in connection with  a hate speech case registered against him in Gujarat's Kutch district in 2001.

A court had issued an arrest warrant against him in 2012 in connection with the case but he could not be arrested at the time as his address was not known.He will be produced before a court here on Friday morning seeking a transit remand to take him to Gujarat

In 2002, Badr had also contested in the court to lift ban on SIMI.  Though the ban was lifted for some time, it was re-imposed on August 6, 2008 on the directive of the Supreme Court.SIMI was founded on April 25,1977 in Aligarh.Badr runs an Unani medical clinic in his village.

(UNI)