The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Commissioner of Delhi Police Dr K K Paul to submit after a week a progress report on the probe into the murderous attack on S A R Geelani.

A Bench, comprising Justice P V Reddi and Justice P P Naolekar, said the incident was 'disturbing'.

The Bench was hearing cross petitions filed by the two sentenced to death and the state challenging the acquittal of Geelani and Navjot Sandhu in the Parliament attack case.

Ram Jethmalani, the counsel for Geelani, said his client had been apprehending an attack on him ever since he was acquitted by the Delhi high court in Jan 2004 in the Parliament attack case.  

• Geelani shot at, injured | Geelani's condition shows improvement

He requested the court to hand over the probe into Tuesday's attack to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Assuring the court that the Delhi police would conduct a thorough probe, its counsel Gopal Subramnaiam said, "The commissioner of police is personally monitoring the investigations."

When the court enquired about Geelani's condition, Jethmalani said his client's intestine had been ruptured at 10 places, but the doctors had not lost hope of saving him.

Geelani was shot outside his lawyer Nandita Haksar's residence in Vasant Enclave locality at around 2100 hours on Tuesday night, when he had gone to discuss the Parliament attack case being heard by the SC.

Geelani was among the four people accused of masterminding the December 13, 2001 attack. A trial court had awarded death sentences to Geelani and two others, Mohd Afzal and Shaukat Hussain Guru, on December 18, 2002. However, the Delhi high court acquitted him. The court also acquitted Navjot Sandhu, alias Afsan Guru, but maintained the convictions and sentences of Afzal and Hussain Guru.

With PTI inputs