Lone convict in Batla House encounter also fined `95,000; defence to appeal against verdict in High Court.
The verdict is finally out. A city court on Tuesday sentenced Shahzad Ahmad, the lone convict in the 2008 Batla House encounter case, to life imprisonment.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 95,000 on Shahzad, a portion of which is to be given to the family of inspector MC Sharma, who died in the encounter. Head constable Balwant, who was injured in the incident, will also get a share.
Ruling that there were enough mitigating circumstances in favour of Shahzad including the fact that he was only 20-years-old at the time of the incident, and that he had fired at the cops on the spur of the moment as he was scared for his life, additional sessions judge Rajender Shahstri decided against awarding him death penalty.
“It is true that there can be no deeper wound on the rule of law than to attack a police officer. However, there are several mitigating factors in the case. The crime in question was not premeditated. The convict is a young boy and his conduct through the entire trail has been good,”observed the court. “The case in hand is not a rarest of rare case and thus, does not warrant the death penalty for the convict.”
Taking note of the facts that Shahzad had killed and injured police officials while they were on official duty and that he is also charged in two of the five cases of the 2008 serial Delhi blasts, the court said that Shahzad’s involvement in the blasts was yet to be proved in a court of law. The court also said that he had no previous criminal history and there was nothing to suggest that he could not be reformed.
Meanwhile, defence lawyer Satish Tamta has decided to appeal against Shahzad’s conviction and sentencing in the Delhi High Court.
Shahzad was convicted last week and was held guilty of killing inspector MC Sharma, assaulting police officials and obstructing them from doing their duty among other charges during the infamous Batla House encounter. The Delhi Police had argued for capital punishment on the ground that he had killed and injured on-duty police officers and was involved in various other heinous crimes, including the Delhi serial blasts nearly five years ago.
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