Wednesday, February 9 2005 15:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Terming as "disturbing" the murderous attack on S A R Geelani, the Supreme Court today (Feb 9, 2005) asked the Delhi Police to submit after a week its report regarding the progress made in the probe even as his counsel sought a CBI investigation into it.

The order came from a Bench comprising Justice P V Reddi and Justice P P Naolekar, which is hearing cross petitions filed by the two convicted and sentenced to death in the Parliament attack case and the petitions filed by the State challenging the acquittal of Geelani and Navjot Sandhu.

Right at the beginning of the hearing of the case pending in the Supreme Court, which lasted for more than a year, counsel for Geelani senior advocate Ram Jethmalani said the Delhi University lecturer had expressed apprehensions about the threat to his life from Delhi Police as far back as March 2004.

"The prophecy of the person almost came true as he is battling for his life after a murderous attack last night," he said and requested the Court to handover the probe into the case to CBI.

The Bench directed the Delhi Police, represented by senior advocate Gopal Subramnaiam, to file the progress report of its investigations into the incident after one week.

Assuring the Court that a thorough probe would be conducted into the matter, he said, "The Commissioner of Police is personally monitoring the investigations into the case."

Jethmalani severely criticised the Delhi Police for not allowing the wife of the injured lecturer to visit him last night and said, "The police threw a cordon of armed personnel around Geelani at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and did not allow his wife to be by his side."

"Only after the media started reporting the incident and asked questions that the Delhi Police relented and allowed the wife near him," he alleged.

When the court enquired about the condition of Geelani, Jethmalani said that his intestine has been ruptured at 10 places but the doctors have not lost hope of saving him.

Geelani was rushed to AIIMS after he was shot outside his lawyer Nandita Haksar's residence in Vasant Enclave locality at around 21:00 hrs (IST) last night (Feb 8, 2005).

Geelani was among the four people who were accused of masterminding the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack. However, he and Navjot Sandhu alias Afsan Guru were acquitted by the Delhi High Court.

Geelani and two others Mohd Afzal, Shaukat Hussain Guru had been sentenced to death by a trial court on December 18, 2002. However, the High Court had acquitted Geelani while maintaining the convictions and sentence of the other two.