Explain Batla encounter, HC tells Delhi Police

Could the Delhi High court be paving a way for a magisterial inquiry into the Batla House encounter? If guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on any police encounter are followed, then yes.

Chief justice AP Shah and justice Sanjeev Khanna of the Delhi high court on Thursday sought an explanation from the Delhi Police for not initiating a magisterial inquiry into the encounter, despite the NHRC guidelines.

On September 19, days after the Delhi serial blasts, the Delhi police had gunned down two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists, Atif Ameen and Mohd Sajid, in a gun battle. The force also lost a highly-decorated policeman, inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, in the encounter but was able to arrest two other terrorists, Mohd Saif and Zeeshan from Batla House in south Delhi’s Jamia Nagar locality.

The encounter soon turned into a political issue with several political parties seeking a judicial probe to verify the credibility of the encounter. On Tuesday, union HRD minister Arjun Singh had also said that an inquiry into the encounter was important “to clear the doubts” and that “in my understanding even the Prime Minister is of the same opinion.”