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Parliament attack case: We had permission to intercept messages, say cops

Prosecution in Parliament House attack case on Tuesday asserted before a Delhi court that it had the permission of the authorities to collect evidence by intercepting communications even as a key eyewitness and five others recorded their statements about the incident.

After the prosecution submitted that there are documents available with them about the permission and authorisation of interception of communications for collecting evidence, Special Judge S N Dhingra directed the police to file those and fixed July 11 for further hearing of the issue.

"He (public prosecutor) is directed to file the documents concerning interception order and authority of interception if any, and the relevant notification, giving authority of interception," the court said, after partly hearing the arguments on the application moved by the three accused seeking exclusion of alleged evidence collected through interception of communications.

Three of the four arrested accused, Shaukat Hussain Guru, his wife Navjot Sandhu alias Afsan Guru and a suspended lecturer of Delhi University college S A R Geelani, had on Monday challenged the alleged evidence collected by interception of communications saying it was illegal and inadmissible under Prevention of Terrorism Act.

However, Special Public Prosecutor D P Aggarwal told the court that the documents pertaining to the permission of the authorities for interception were not filed as these were top secret.

Meanwhile, a key eyewitness to the attack, Assistant Sub Inspector Jeet Ram told the court that he had seen the five slain terrorists laying the wire and detonators, perhaps to blast the car with which they forced their entry into Parliament House.

Ram, who was the in charge of Vice-President Krishan Kant's security and was leading the escort on the day of attack, said he had immediately got suspicious of the Ambassador car with red light and a sticker of home ministry, which unauthorisedly came towards their carcade and tried to enter gate number 11 of the Parliament House.

The ASI, who was injured in the gun battle with the terrorists, said he had shouted to the driver of the car to stop but he reversed it and struck the Vice-President's car. Ram said he suspected something fishy when the driver of the car tried to accelerate after he and the driver of Vice-President's car held him by his collar.

"I suspected that there was something fishy and I got back from that car (Ambassador) and I took out my revolver. The moment I took out my revolver, I saw that five persons got out of that car, two from one side and three from the other side and they started laying wire and detonators, perhaps in order to blast the car," the ASI said in his deposition.

Ram said on seeing their activity he realised that the occupants of the car were terrorists and he fired on the persons who were laying the wire and detonators. "The shot fired by me, struck on the leg of one of them. They also fired at me and I received bullet injury in my right thigh," he told the court.

The ASI said since he was badly injured, he fell down near the CRPF checkpost and the firing in Parliament House went on for half an hour after which he was removed to hospital.

The five militants who were killed in the ensuing gun battle with security force were -- Mohammed alias Leader, Hamza, Haider alias Tufial, Raja and Rana -- all Pakistani nationals.

Another prosecution witness, Constable Rajesh Kumar, who is a photographer in the Delhi Police, said he had taken snaps of the scene of occurrence of terrorist attack on Parliament.

The court also recorded the statements of four attesting witnesses -- Jaiveer Singh, Sukhvir Singh, Jagvir and Ashwini Kumar (all Head Constable) -- who took part in the investigation of the case.

The court had last month framed charges against two Jaish-e-Mohammed militants Mohammed Afzal, Shaukat Hussain Guru, his wife Navjot Sandhu alias Afsan Guru for the December 13 Parliament attack, accusing them of attempting to kill the Vice-President, prime minister, central ministers, MPs and several other VIPs.

The accused have been charged with threatening the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of the country by waging war against it and committing several other offences under POTA, IPC, Explosive Substance Act and Arms Act.

JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, the outfit's chief commander in Jammu and Kashmir Ghazi Baba alias Abu Jehadi and one Tariq Ahmed, have been declared proclaimed offenders in the case.

Complete Coverage: The Attack on Parliament

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