Thursday, Feb 10, 2005
Thursday, Feb 10, 2005 |
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By Our Legal Correspondent
CALL FOR JUSTICE: Author Arundhati Roy taking part in the protest against the attack on Delhi University lecturer S.A.R. Geelani, outside the police headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday. _ Photos: S. Subramanium
NEW DELHI, FEB. 9. Expressing serious concern over the attack on the Delhi University lecturer, S.A.R. Geelani last night, the Supreme Court today asked the Delhi police to submit a report in one week relating to the assault and the progress of the investigation. [Mr. Geelani was shot at outside his lawyer's residence and rushed to the AIIMS. His condition is said to be `stable'.] A Bench of Justice P. Venkatarama Reddy and Justice P.P. Naolekar gave this direction after senior counsel, Ram Jethmalani, brought to the notice of the court the attack on Mr. Geelani. The Bench is hearing a batch of appeals filed by the two who were sentenced to death in the December 13 Parliament attack case and those filed by the Delhi Police challenging the acquittal of Mr. Geelani and Navjot Sandhu by the High Court.
`Expected threat'
Mr. Jethmalani, who is counsel for Mr. Geelani, told the court that the Delhi University lecturer had filed an application in March 2004 apprehending a threat to his life from the Delhi police. He pleaded with the court to entrust the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation. When the court enquired about the condition of Mr. Geelani, Mr. Jethmalani said his intestine had ruptured in 10 places but the doctors had not lost hope. He found fault with the Delhi police for not allowing Mr. Geelani's wife to visit him in hospital last night. He said the police threw a cordon of armed personnel around Mr. Geelani and did not allow his wife to be by his side. Only after the media started reporting the incident, did the police relent, he said. Appearing for the Delhi police, senior counsel, Gopal Subramaniam, submitted: "The Commissioner of Police is personally monitoring the investigation into the attack and a thorough probe would be conducted."
Police refute charges
Our Staff Reporter writes: Police today refuted allegations by Mr. Geelani's supportersthat they were behind the murderous assault. At a press conference, the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch), Ranjit Narayan, dismissed the charges as "baseless" and "a figment of imagination." "Mr. Geelani had never approached the police with a request to provide him security because of any threat to his life. There is no truth in the charge that the lecturer had been kept under surveillance," he said. Earlier, a Crime Branch team headed by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ravi Shankar, visited the scene of crime to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the attack. The police found five empty cartridges from near Mr. Geelani's silver-grey Maruti car parked a short distance from his lawyer, Nandita Haksar's house. A forensic squad lifted some fingerprints from Mr. Geelani's car. However, the police are yet to come across an eyewitness. Mr. Geelani's lawyer told the police that she was working on her computer and her husband, Sabastian Hongray, was in the kitchen when they heard some gunfire. Soon thereafter, someone began banging at their door. When Mr. Hongray opened it, he saw Mr. Geelani, who said that he had been shot at. Mr. Hongray and Ms. Haksar then helped Mr. Geelani to the backseat of their Scorpio and rushed him to hospital. Mr. Geelani was operated upon early this morning and three bullets were removed.
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