New Delhi, February 9
The Supreme Court while hearing appeals in the Parliament attack case today sought report from the Delhi police about its investigation into the yesterday’s attack on college Lecturer S.A.R. Geelani, who had been acquitted accused in the case. He is fighting for his life in a hospital after receiving four gunshots.
“We are dismayed by the incident,” said a Bench comprising Mr Justice P.V. Reddi and Mr Justice P.P. Naolekar after Geelani’s counsel Ram Jethmalani briefed the court about the attack on Geelani, an Arabic Lecturer in Delhi University’s Zakir Hussain College.
The Bench, which has been hearing the case for over past three months, directed the police counsel Gopal Subramaniam to submit the status report within a week.
Subramaniam said the police itself was “disturbed” with the incident and the Police Commissioner has directed the Crime Branch to investigate the matter.
When Mr Jethmalani tried to point a finger at the police, holding it responsible for the incident, Mr Subramaniam said, “The prosecution is only carrying its professional duty in challenging the acquittals in the case.”
The Delhi High Court had acquitted Mr Geelani along with Navjot Sandhu, alias Afsan, the wife of one of the two Kashmiri militants whose death sentence had been upheld by the High Court.
A special POTA court here had awarded death penalty to Mr Geelani, Kashmiri militants Mohammed Afzal and Afsan’s husband Shaukat Hussain on December 18, 2002, for their involvement in the December 13, 2001, attack on Parliament in which five Pakistani terrorists were killed by the security forces. Afsan was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment by the trial court.
Briefing the court about the incident, Mr Jethmalani said Mr Geelani had received bullets in the stomach and his intestines had been ruptured at least at 10 places as per the doctors’ report.
Without mentioning the Delhi police directly, he said, “Apprehensions are that he (Geelani) might be eliminated in a false encounter.”
Seeking CBI investigation in the attack, Mr Jethmalani told the court that the lecturer had filed an affidavit on April 13, 2004, in the apex court stating that he apprehends danger to his life.
He said after the acquittal, the Lecturer was followed to Goa and a complaint had been filed in this regard by him with the police there. “Attempts were made on his life when he was in jail,” Mr Jethmalani said accusing the Delhi police of not investigating that matter properly.
