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New Delhi: The Indian government has been left red-faced after a New Delhi court refused to extend a ban on an Islamic group that authorities have repeatedly blamed for deadly bombings, saying there was no evidence.
In the decision submitted late on Tuesday, Judge Geeta Mittal refused a state petition to extend a seven-year ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), saying the government had been unable to supply any new evidence of illegal activities by SIMI.
SIMI has been banned since 2001 and the government has repeatedly linked them to a wave of bombing attacks that have rocked India in the last three years, killing hundreds, saying that SIMI activists were working together with foreign Islamic groups.
But Indian police have made little progress in cracking the cases and the evidence they did have was insufficient for the courts.
Geeta wrote, "The material given by the Home Ministry is insufficient, so the ban cannot be continued."
The government said it would appeal the decision.
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