New Delhi: Twenty-six days after being sentenced to death in the Parliament attack case, city college lecturer S A R Geelani and the only women convict Navjot Sandhu on January 14 challenged their conviction in the Delhi High Court.

Both the convicts, in their appeals, have sought discharge in the case claiming that there is no evidence against them.

A Special Court in Delhi had sentenced Geelani and two Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, Mohad Afzal and Shaukat Hussain Guru, to death, while Shaukat's wife Sandhu alias Afsan, was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment on December 18.

Afzal and Shauka, have not yet moved the High Court, though their counsel had stated that they would challenge their conviction and sentence in the higher court.

Geelani and Sandhu, in their petitions claimed that there was no "direct or indirect" evidence to prove their complicity in the crime and their having any knowledge of the alleged conspiracy to attack Parliament.

While rejecting the plea of convicts for leniency after they were found guilty in the case, Special Judge S N Dhingra while awarding death penalty to the three convicts, had said the attack on Parliament fell in the category of "rarest of rare case".

Geelani, Afzal and Shaukat, convicted under the provisions of POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) and the Indian Penal Code, were found guilty by the court of waging a war against India, murder and committing terrorist acts resulting in the death of nine persons.

Sandhu was held guilty of not disclosing the conspiracy though she had prior knowledge of it.

PTI