The Hindu : Dec. 13 attack: police version in doubt

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 15, 2002

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Dec. 13 attack: police version in doubt

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 14. Police "suppressed'' certain facts which are crucial to examining the allegations against the accused in the December 13 Parliament attack case, defence counsel, K.G. Kannabiran, told the court today. Police claims of the arrest of Mohammed Afzal and Shaukat Hussain Guru and the seizures made from them at the time of arrest were not borne out by police records, he said.

The Delhi Police said they arrested the Delhi University lecturer, Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani, at 10 a.m. on December 15. He took them to Afsan Guru, wife of Shaukat Hussain, who after 10.45 a.m., told them about her husband and Mr. Afzal's whereabouts. This information was communicated to Srinagar. The Srinagar police arrested Shaukat and Afzal at the vegetable `mandi' after 10.45 a.m., seized the truck they were in and recovered Rs. 10 lakhs, a laptop and a mobile phone.

The Police's basic claim that they traced Mr. Geelani after acquiring his mobile phone record had been proven false. Documents provided to the court state that they received the telephone record only on December 17. Besides, the facts, as recorded by the Srinagar police, state that Shaukat and Afzal were arrested by 10 a.m. on December 15 following information received at 5.45 a.m.

This, Mr. Kannabiran said, made the Delhi Police version a falsehood. Compounding this was the fact that the arrests were not attended by the procedural requirements of an arrest like the presence of a public witness, although they claimed that the arrest was made at a busy public place — the Srinagar vegetable market — and through an arrest memo.

Shaukat Hussain has said that he was arrested in New Delhi. Mohammed Afzal said he was apprehended at a bus stand in Srinagar. Afsan Guru said she was picked up by police on December 14. Qurat-ul-Ain Arifa, wife of S.A.R. Geelani, said police had picked her up on December 14 and that Afsan was in the police jeep at the time. Police had not said that Arifa's statement was false.

Mr. Kannabiran said that as the police version of events had been in doubt, the seizures they claimed to have made at the time of the arrests also "do not inspire confidence.'' Police said that at the time of Mr. Afzal's and Mr. Shaukat's arrests, they seized a truck from which they recovered Rs. 10 lakhs, a laptop and a mobile phone.

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