New Delhi: Delhi Police today (Dec 13, 2003) filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging a Delhi High Court order acquitting lecturer S A R Geelani and woman accused Afsan Guru in the Parliament attack case.

Timing the appeal to coincide with the second anniversary of the attack on Parliament, the voluminous appeal filed through counsel Mukta Gupta said that the High Court erred in acquitting Geelani, who was sentenced to death by the trial court for his role in the conspiracy by militants to storm the symbol of Indian Democracy.

The High Court on October 29 had acquitted two of the Parliament attack case convicts - Delhi University lecturer Geelani and a woman Afsan Guru - by absolving them of all charges, but confirmed the death sentence imposed by the lower court on Jaish-e-Mohammed militants Mohammad Afzal and Shaukat Hussain Guru.

The Police in its Special Leave Petition said that the High Court failed to take into account the relevant evidence bringing out the clear involvement of Geelani and the wife of convicted militant Shaukat in the conspiracy.

The High Court had taken note of the fact that Geelani had not given confessional statement under POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) and his telephonic conversation with other two accused and his brother was not by itself sufficient to draw an inference of his involvement in the conspiracy to attack Parliament on December 13, 2001.

PTI

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