SIMI jailbreak: Madhya Pradesh govt extends probe panel term by three months

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday extended by three months the term of the single-member judicial commission, set up to probe the daring jailbreak by eight Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) operatives last year. This is the second extension that the commission has received.

Madhya Pradesh finance minister Jayant Malaiya said the decision to give the extension was taken in the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. “The term of the single-member judicial commission probing the escape of SIMI operatives from Bhopal’s central jail, has been further extended for a period of three months. The term of this commission was scheduled to end next month (on 7 August). Now, the commission’s tenure has been extended up to 6 November,” Malaiya said after the cabinet meeting.

On 7 November last year, the state government had appointed retired high court judge SK Pandey to probe the daring jailbreak by eight activists of the banned SIMI. Initially, this single-member commission had been told to complete the probe within three months and submit its report to the state government. The eight SIMI undertrials had pulled off an audacious escape from the high-security central jail of Bhopal on the intervening night of 30-31 October last year after killing a guard. Police, however, gunned them down in an alleged encounter on the outskirts of Bhopal within hours of jailbreak.