A DELHI court on Thursday (July 25) ruled that the 2008 Batla House encounter was genuine and pronounced Shahzad Ahmad, the lone suspect arrested in the case, guilty of murdering inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.
“He (Shahzad) is held guilty of attempting to cause death of head constables Balwant Singh and Rajbir Singh and causing death of inspector MC Sharma by firing on them,” additional sessions judge Rajender Kumar Shastri said.
“He is also found guilty of assaulting police officers and obstructing them from doing their duty,” the judge said.
The court will pronounce Shahzad’s punishment on Monday (July 29).
On September 19, 2008, six days after serial bomb blasts rocked Delhi claiming 26 lives, an encounter took place at L-18 Batla House in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar between a raiding team of Delhi police special cell and suspected IM operatives.
The police had received a tip-off that some suspected militants involved in the blasts were holed up there.
During the gun battle, two of the occupants, Atif Ameen and Mohammed Sajid, were killed, while Mohammed Saif surrendered.
Shahzad and another accused, Junaid, now a proclaimed offender, escaped. While Shahzad was arrested on January 1, 2010, Junaid is still at large.
Highly-decorated Delhi police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma succumbed to the bullet injuries sustained in the gun battle while head constable Balwant was injured.
Soon after the incident, Congress leader Digvijay Singh created a big furore by going public with a demand for a judicial probe into the encounter, calling it fake.
The government, however, rejected his demand and stuck to its position that the encounter was genuine.
Singh, meanwhile, has rejected Bharatiya Janata Party’s demand that he apologise for his comments.
The Congress leader claimed that had his demand for a judicial inquiry been met, “many things may have come to light”.
He tweeted, “I had asked for a judicial inquiry which I felt was fully justified, but it was denied. I reiterate my earlier stand. I respect the judgement.”
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) hailed the judgement and accused the Congress of having played vote bank politics on the encounter.
