The police have arrested Kallarimangalam Puthenparakkal Abdurehiman, 38, a former activist of the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and managing director of Nanma Books, on the charge of publishing a book aimed at fomenting communal hatred.
The Nadakkavu police arrested him for publishing in Malayalam the translation of a communally inciting Urdu book titled Dawah and Jihad authored by the Hyderabad-based Islamist cleric Maulana Abdul Aleem Islahi, who founded the seminary Jamiat-ul-Sheikh Maududi named after the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami.
The accused was charged with Section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) of the Indian Penal Code.
He was produced before the Kozhikode Judicial First Class Magistrate Court and remanded in judicial custody at the sub-jail for 14 days.
Investigators said the book extensively contained matter exhorting violence in the name of religion. Usman Kadungothu, hailing from Kuttiyadi, had translated the book from Urdu.
Following an intelligence input, a team of police officers had raided Tirurangadi Books functioning at Century Complex near the New Bus Station in the city on September 4. Abdurehiman was arrested following a detailed probe.
Maulana Islahi, who had graduated from Azamgarh’s Madrasat-ul-Islah, had been an ideological mentor to several young radicals in southern India, who later became activists of the Indian Mujahideen.
