By Sanjay Sharma, Bhopal, July 17 (IANS) Despite a ban on it, the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) - under the scanner for alleged involvement in the Mumbai blasts - has seen a rise in its activities in Madhya Pradesh as well as an increase in its area of influence, say police officials.

Since the ban on the organisation on Sep 27, 2001, it has spread to many new districts. It was earlier restricted to the districts of Indore, Ujjain, Khandwa and Bhopal with its state headquarters in Ujjain before the ban.

SIMI activities have been witnessed in four more districts - Burhanpur, Guna, Neemuch and Shajapur - after the ban, according to police records.

With this, SIMI has made its presence felt now in almost the whole of the Malwa region. Cases against it have also been registered in Sivni, Jabalpur and Sheopur districts.

Before the ban, 33 cases were registered against SIMI activists in various districts of spreading religious discord and treachery. Post the 2001 ban, however, 49 cases were registered against the body.

"SIMI national general secretary Safdar Nagauri had his base in the temple town of Ujjain, where the state headquarters also was located, before the centre banned it," a police official said.

Safdar, an Ujjain resident in his 40s, was the son of retired assistant sub-inspector of police, Zarhul Hasan Nagauri.

"He has been absconding since the ban. He has cases of spreading religious discord and treachery registered against him since 1997-98," Ajay Kumar Sharma, deputy inspector general of police (Ujjain range), told IANS.

"While the police are still searching for Safdar Nagauri, two dozen more suspected SIMI activists in Ujjain are also under watch," he said. Safdar's close associate Aamil Pervez is already lodged at Bhairugarh central jail in Ujjain.

"Another SIMI office bearer, its state secretary, Muneer Uzzema, has his residence in the Shahpura locality of Bhopal. But he has fled with his family members after the Mumbai blasts. A reward of Rs.3,000 on him has been announced," the official said.

Muneer, who works as a chemist with the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board, is the son of Mohammed Munawwar Deshmukh, a well known professor of mathematics at Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) in Bhopal.

"Muneer's house was found locked when the police raided the premises," said S.K. Raut, additional director general of police (Intelligence).

Aftab, another SIMI activist lodged in the Khandwa jail, is suspected to be closely associated with Mohammed Fayyaz alias Zulfeqar Fayyaz, one of the prime suspects in the Mumbai serial blasts.

"An intelligence bureau team is on its way to Khandwa to meet him," official sources said. However, the state police have denied this.

"There has been no contact with Mumbai Police in connection with Tuesday's blasts, but we have directed officials to maintain strict vigil on SIMI activists in the wake of their arrests in the state in the recent past," Raut said.

Since the ban, 180 SIMI activists have been arrested from across the state including Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal, Khandwa, Seoni, Jabalpur, Sheopur, Burhanpur, Guna, Neemuch and Shajapur districts.

Since April this year, five SIMI members including two women were arrested in Khandwa, four in Burhanpur, and one each in Jabalpur and Ujjain.

The police, however, say that those arrested were not involved in any violent activities but in distributing pamphlets and propagating their ideology.

Admitting that more needs to be done to track down the banned outfit's members and sympathisers, a senior police official said: "The police and the state intelligence are on their toes to track the presence of anti-nationals in the state."

"It is not the SIMI alone but several anti-national forces, including the underworld, have joined hands together. The police are keeping a close watch on all such elements," said Sanjeev Kumar Singh, Bhopal range inspector general.