By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Friday sought the Delhi government’s reply on a petition by militant Shaukat Hussain Guru, challenging his conviction for concealing information about the terror attack on parliament Dec 13, 2001.
A bench of Justices P.P. Naolekar and L.S. Panta gave the government two weeks to file its reply to Guru’s petition.
Guru, presently serving a 10-year term in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on the apex court’s orders, had moved the court in August 2007 contending that he was wrongly convicted on a new charge of concealment of information for which he was never tried by the trial court.
He was originally awarded capital punishment by the trial court. The Delhi High Court also confirmed it but the Supreme Court reduced his sentence to a 10-year jail term.
Guru was originally ordered the gallows under the now repealed Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA) and the penal offences for waging war against the state. The high court, too, had upheld his conviction on these charges.
The apex court, however, acquitted him of the charges. Instead, it convicted him on a new charge of concealing information about the impending attack from police and jailed him for 10 years.
Guru has already been twice before the apex court against his conviction on the new charge through what is known as review petition and then through a curative petition, which is heard by the judges in their chamber.
The apex court, however, has given him a rare third chance to raise his contention before it.
Five militants – Mohammed, Haider, Hamza, Rana and Raja – had attacked the parliament Dec 13, 2001 and were killed by security personnel. In the gunfight, nine security personnel were also killed and 16 injured.
A trial court in 2002 had awarded death penalty to Mohammad Afzal, Guru and a Delhi college lecturer S.A.R. Geelani while sentencing Navjot Sandhu alias Afsan Guru to five years imprisonment.
On appeal, the Delhi High Court on Oct 29, 2003 upheld the death penalty to Afzal and Guru but acquitted both Geelani and Afsan Guru.
On further appeal, the apex court in August 2005 upheld the death sentence imposed on Afzal, acquittal of Geelani and Afsan Guru and modified the sentence of life imprisonment into 10 years of prison for Hussain.