Verdict relief for Sharma family
The verdict in the five-year-old Batla House encounter case was pronounced on Thursday in a jam-packed court room. The order in the controversial encounter case was long awaited and people, including media persons, started trickling in from 8 am in the Saket court complex.
The lone accused in the case, Shahzad Ahmad, was dressed in a white-striped shirt and jeans. Shahzad did not show any outward reaction to the verdict and was very composed. The order on quantum of sentence will be delivered on July 29.
Shahzad was brought amidst tight security and immediately taken away by the police officers after the pronouncement of the judgment.
Disappointed by the judgment, Manisha Sethi of the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association said, “The conviction has raised many questions. We are surprised by the order. We will have to read the judgement to see on what grounds has he been convicted. How were the questions of the defence disregarded?”
While no one from Shahzad’s family was present in the trial court on Thursday when the verdict was delivered, members from civil society group Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association, which had raised questions on the genuineness of the encounter and had demanded for a judicial inquiry into it, were present in court.
Meanwhile, Maya Sharma, whose husband M.C. Sharma had led the police team that had stormed an apartment in Batla House to catch alleged terrorists, said the judgment has proved that it was not a fake encounter as claimed by certain politicians.
“Now it has been proved by the court’s verdict that it was not a fake encounter and that martyrdom of my husband was genuine. The encounter was questioned by the political parties for their own benefit as it had happened during the election year. Today’s judgment has proved them wrong,” Ms Sharma said on Thursday.
M.C. Sharma had led a seven-member team to the Batla House on September 19, 2008 on a tip-off that suspected terrorists, involved in the serial blasts in the capital, were staying there. He succumbed to the bullet injuries sustained during the gun battle.
Slamming those who had termed the encounter as fake, Ms Sharma said she was least bothered about the allegations.
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