Former UPA Home Minister Shivraj Patil rejected the Digvijay Singh's comment on 2008 Batla House gunfight being a ‘fake encounter’ as being fake.
"Have I changed my stand? I have said in past that the encounter wasn't fake. That means information which was given to the home minister and the home ministry by the police who were actually involved in the encounter was relied upon, and it was said that it was an 'encounter'," Patil told a TV channel.
"And not only that, a policeman (Mohan Chand Sharma) was also killed. The man who had gone to take action against the terrorists was killed. How can one say that it was not an encounter?" Patil said.
The Congress on Wednesday distanced itself from party general secretary Digvijaya Singh's claims saying it was not a fake encounter and, therefore, there was no need to sensationalise the same.
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the party?s stand has always been very clear that it was not a fake encounter as ascertained by the Delhi High Court and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) . "The stand of the Congress Party is very simple and clear. We always maintain that it was not a fake encounter. There is no point of calling individual statements," Singhvi told ANI.?The Government of India?s stand then and now is the same. And, therefore, I think there is no need to sensationalise this issue,? he added.
"The Government of India's stand then and now is the same. And, therefore, I think there is no need to sensationalise this issue," he added.
Meanwhile, former Mumbai Police commissioner and BJP lawmaker Satyapal Singh accused the Congress of always helping those who are on the wrong side when it comes to national security. "This has been a character of the Congress Party that when it comes to national security, they have always put that aside and have always helped the wrong people," Singh told ANI.
"As far as this Batla encounter is concerned, the court and the NHRC have already made it clear that whatever the police said it was right and it was not a fake encounter," he added. The Congress general secretary yesterday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi led-NDA government to order a judicial probe into the 2008 encounter at Batla House in Delhi in which two suspected terrorists and a police officer were killed. "Batla House encounter was fake. I dare the BJP to go for a judicial probe. I still stand by my remarks on the encounter. I don't know who is Bada Sajid or Chhota Sajid," Singh said.
The encounter, which had taken place during the former UPA regime, recently came into news amid a claim by an alleged ISIS operative that he had fled Batla House right before the police raided it.
Batla House encounter, officially known as Operation Batla House, took place on September 19, 2008, against Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists in Batla House locality in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, in which two suspected terrorists were killed while two other suspects were arrested.
Encounter specialist and Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who led the police action, was also martyred during the incident. According to the reports, Mohammed Sajid alias Bada Sajid is one of the six persons who feature in the 22-minute video allegedly posted by the Islamic State recently, however he was one of the terrorist who was claimed killed in the encounter. A Delhi court had in 2013 sentenced to life the lone convict and suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Shahzad Ahmad in the case for killing decorated police officer Sharma and injuring two other policemen.
With agency inputs.
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