Police plea in Parliament case

 

The Delhi police today filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging a Delhi High Court order acquitting lecturer S A R Geelani and Afsan Guru, the lone woman accused.

 

The Delhi High Court had acquitted the two in the attack on Parliament conspiracy case. Five terrorists had attacked Parliament on December 13, 2001. All the five were killed. Geelani and Afsan Guru, along with Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists Mohammad Afzal and Shaukat Hussain Guru, husband of Afsan Guru, were charged for being a part of the conspiracy to attack Parliament. While the high court absolved Geelani and Afsan Guru of all charges on October 29, it confirmed the death sentences of Afzal and Hussain Guru.

 

The police timed their appeal to coincide with the second anniversary

of the attack on Parliament. The voluminous appeal, filed through counsel Mukta Gupta, said the Delhi High Court erred in acquitting Geelani, who had been sentenced to death by the lower court. The lower court had also sentenced Afsan Guru to life imprisonment.

 

The police, in their special leave petition, said that the high court failed to take into account the relevant evidence bringing out the clear involvement of Geelani and Afsan Guru.

 

The high court had taken note of the fact that Geelani had not given a confessional statement under Prevention of Terrorism Act and his telephonic conversation with other two accused and his brother was not by itself sufficient to draw an inference of his involvement in the conspiracy to attack Parliament on December 13, 2001.