The Hindu : Hearing of appeals begins in Parliament attack case

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Thursday, Apr 03, 2003

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Hearing of appeals begins in Parliament attack case

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 2. The Delhi High Court today commenced hearing of appeals in the December 13 Parliament attack case.

The four convicted in the case — the Delhi University lecturer, S.A.R. Geelani, businessman Shaukat Hussain Guru, his wife Afsan Guru, alias Navjot Sandhu, and the former JKLF militant, Mohammed Afzal — have appealed against their convictions. The State has filed appeals for enhancement of the sentences.

A two-judge bench, comprising Justices Usha Mehra and Pradeep Nandrajog, today heard senior counsel Gopal Subramanium, appearing for the State, who set out the evidence recorded from police and security officials who were at the scene of the attack on December 13 2001, or had arrived shortly thereafter. He dramatically recounted the entry of the white Ambassador into the Parliament precinct and the fire-fight that ensued ending in the deaths of the attackers and a few others.

Mr. Subramanium dealt in detail with the recoveries made at the scene — including arms and ammunition and the articles found in the possession of the dead militants and in their car — and from the man who volunteered that he sold the car to one Ashiq Hussain Khan.

The man had also identified Ashiq Hussain Khan, whose real name police said is Mohammed, among the dead militants.

The prosecution will be arguing for, among other things, enhancing the life sentence awarded to Geelani, Guru and Afzal, on one count to death, although they have been awarded capital punishment on two other counts.

They will also argue for the maximum ten-year imprisonment for Afsan Guru, who has been convicted on the lesser charge of concealing knowledge of conspiracy.

The prosecution has also appealed against Ms. Guru's acquittal on charges of conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism and other charges under the POTA.

Present in the court today were Ram Jethmalani, counsel for S.A.R. Geelani, Shanti Bhushan, counsel for Shaukat Hussain Guru, Colin Gonsalves for Mohammed Afzal and Nitya Ramakrishnan for Afsan Guru.

The appeals will be heard Monday through Thursday.

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