The NHRC told Delhi high court that it found “no human rights violation by the police” in the Batla House encounter.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday told Delhi high court that it found “no human rights violation by the police” in the Batla House encounter. The rights panel report comes after months of speculation that last September’s encounter was fake.
Two suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists, including alleged IM mastermind Atif Amin were gunned down by the police on the morning of September 19, 2008, just a week after serial bomb blasts rocked the national capital, taking 26 lives. The Delhi police also lost encounter specialist Mohan Chand Sharma in the incident that occurred in the predominantly Muslim locality of Batla House in south Delhi.
The incident, taking place just two months before the Delhi assembly election, created a political turmoil after residents and Muslim organisations cried foul. While the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) demanded an independent investigation into the authenticity of the encounter, the BJP called the demand an “insult to martyrs”.
Though the political storm receded after the elections, a legal battle began over the demand to initiate a magisterial inquiry into the encounter. The Delhi police dismissed allegations that the encounter was “fake” after an NGO, Act Now For Harmony and Democracy, moved the high court questioning the police version of the
incident.
While a magisterial inquiry into the face-off (mandatory in case of any police encounter) never took off, the Delhi police on May 21 asked the NHRC to complete its own inquiry into the case within two months and submit it to the court.
On Wednesday, the NHRC submitted its report to a two-judge bench comprising chief justice AP Shah and justice Sanjeev Khanna. The court directed the commission to put the contents of the report on its website and provide a copy to the petitioners.
In its 30-page report, the NHRC observed, “We are clearly of the opinion that having regard to the material placed before us, it cannot be said that there has been any violation of human rights by action of police.” However, the commission noted that it had been tasked to find out whether the police had spewed bullets at the ‘terrorists’ in self-defence and not whether the men killed were indeed terrorists.
The report justified the police action against the suspected terrorists, “There can be no manner of doubt that firing was first resorted to by the occupants of the room on the police party. If the police had first resorted to firing at the occupants — Mohd Atif Ameen and Mohd Sajid — they could have been injured and not in a position to retaliate. The fact that inspector Mohan Chand Sharma and head constable Balwant Singh received gunshot injuries leads us to infer that firing was first resorted to by occupants of the room,” the NHRC report said.
The report adds, “There is ample material before us which leads to the conclusion that there was imminent danger to the life of members of the police party… The police acted in self-defence. In such circumstances, the action taken by the police is fully protected by law.”
“Since there was no violation of human rights, nothing further is required to be done by this commission and the case is closed,” the four-member inquiry committee concluded.
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