IM man held guilty in Batla House killing

Jul 26, 2013 |

Age Correspondent

Ruling that the 2008 Batla House encounter was a genuine one, a Delhi court on Thursday pronounced its verdict in the five-year-old case, holding lone Indian Mujahideen operative Shahzad Ahmad guilty of killing Delhi police inspector M.C. Sharma and assaulting other policemen. The court will decide on the quantum of punishment to Shahzad on Monday.

While pronouncing the verdict, additional sessions judge Rajender Kumar Shastri said: “Shahzad is held guilty of attempting to cause the death of head constables Balwant Singh and Rajbir Singh and causing the death of inspector M.C. Sharma by firing on them. He is also found guilty of assaulting police officers and obstructing them from doing their duty.”
As expected, the verdict evoked sharp political reactions, with the Congress saying all sections should accept the verdict and guard against politicising the issue so that the police’s morale was not undermined. AICC spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi sought to downplay statements made by party colleague Digvijay Singh questioning the genuineness of the September 2008 encounter, saying that individuals could have made comments in a surcharged atmosphere, but these should not be given credence now. Commenting on the verdict, Mr Digvijay Singh said: “I respect the judgment. It is for the aggrieved party to either accept the verdict or go into appeal.” He added: “I had asked for a judicial inquiry into the Batla encounter, which I felt was fully justified but it was denied. I reiterate my earlier stand.”

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