The Hindu : Parliament attack case: `evidence points to involvement of accused'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 08, 2003

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Parliament attack case: `evidence points to involvement of accused'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 7. The Delhi High Court Bench which is hearing the appeals in the December 13 Parliament attack case, was today given evidence the prosecution says links the four persons convicted in the case — Mohammed Afzal, Shaukat Hussain Guru, S.A.R. Geelani and Afsan Guru — with the five who committed the attack.

Prosecution counsel, Gopal Subramanium, dealt with three major pieces of evidence — the car used by the attackers, the phone numbers found on them, in use, the additional SIM cards as well as on slips of paper, and the identity cards found on their persons.

Recounting the evidence of persons connected with the sale of the car, he set out the sequence of the sale ending with the final sale to Ashiq Hussain Khan. The car dealer, Harpal Singh, identified the dead militant named Mohammed as the person named Ashiq Hussain Khan to whom he had soled the car.

Harpal Singh also identified Mohammed Afzal as the man who had accompanied Khan/Mohammed. Mr. Subramanium also told the court that Mohammed Afzal had in his disclosure statement admitted to accompanying Mohammed to buy the car. During the trial, Afzal had accepted the truthfulness of Harpal Singh's evidence.

Mr. Subramanium also dealt briefly with the mobile telephone numbers found on the dead militants. The court would see that these numbers had "all been calling each other".

He said that police taps on two numbers led to the arrest to S.A.R. Geelani from his house, who led them to Afsan Guru who, in turn, gave information leading to the arrest of her husband, Shaukat Hussain Guru, and Mohammed Afzal.

The Bench, comprising Justices Usha Mehra and Pradeep Nandrajog, was also told of the confessional statements made by Mohammed Afzal and Shaukat Hussain Guru, in which they admitted to the whole thing, and that S.A.R. Geelani had refused to make a statement.

To a question from Ms. Justice Usha Mehra about why the identity cards seized from the dead militants had not been sealed, Mr. Subramanium said this was because they were being used in the investigation and to identify the men.

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