The Hindu : Parliament attack case: phone call records examined

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Thursday, May 01, 2003

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Parliament attack case: phone call records examined

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 30. The Delhi High Court, hearing the appeal in the Parliament attack case, today looked in detail at the evidence of mobile telephones and sim cards recovered during the investigation. The call records of these numbers, the Special Prosecutor, Gopal Subramanium said, showed the degree of contact between the militants and those convicted of conspiring with them.

It was from the call records of the telephone number identified as that of Afzal, received on December 13, that police found the numbers of Shaukat Hussain and S.A.R. Geelani. The call details of their numbers showed the frequency of calls between them prior to and after the attack on the Parliament House complex, Mr. Subramanium said.

Following the identification of Geelani's number police began to tap his telephone and that of Shaukat Hussain. On the basis of the intercepted conversations Geelani and Shaukat Hussain's wife, Afsan Guru, were arrested.

Justice Pradeep Nandrajog asked Mr. Subramanium whether there was evidence that the police investigators had made a request on December 13 for details relating to Geelani's mobile phone number. In reply, Mr. Subramanium presented call records showing that calls were made to and from Shaukat Hussain and to and from Mohammed Afzal.

The same issue had been raised at yesterday's hearing when counsel for Geelani intervened to say that Geelani's phone details had only been received on December 17. A letter from a prosecution witness testifies to this. Mr. Subramanium said that this was so, but that police "were pursuing these numbers since the 13th and getting information. Otherwise it would not have been possible to know who Geelani was. It would not have been possible to make interceptions.''

During yesterday's hearing, the confessional statements made by two of the accused, Shaukat Hussain Guru and Mohammed Afzal, were also dealt with. The Special Prosecutor said they had been made freely and without coercion.

He told the court that the DCP, Ashok Chand, who recorded the confessions, and the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, V. K. Maheshwari, attested to having conducted their work as per the rules governing the recording of statements and their confirmation before a magistrate.

Mr. Subramanium said the statements of Shaukat Hussain and Afzal denying that they had made such confessions were made "six months later'' and were not unequivocal. Afzal's letter to the court said that he had made no statement to the DCP, while Shaukat said that a statement he had made was not read back to him and so might contain distortions.

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