Tag: Batla House encounter

  • Will include OBC castes Mahishya, Teli in reserved category if voted to power: Nadda in Bengal

    By PTI
    KOTULPUR: Alleging that the Mamata Banerjee dispensation has not done anything for the welfare of farmers and Adivasis in West Bengal, BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday claimed that after practising politics of appeasement for years, the TMC supremo has started reciting Sanskrit slokas to assert her Hindu identity.

    She left several Hindu OBC castes such as Mahishya and Teli out of the reserved category because of her “politics of appeasement”, and the BJP, if voted to power, will take steps to include them, Nadda said while addressing a rally at Kotulpur in Bankura district.

    Banerjee had won elections in the name of ‘Ma, Mati, Manush’ (Mother, Land and People), Nadda said and alleged that during the last decade, her party has engaged in “torturing women, killing BJP workers, dictatorship, extortion and politics of appeasement”.

    पश्चिम बंगाल के कोतुलपुर में जनसभा को संबोधित किया।मां, माटी, मानुष के नाम पर आयी ममता सरकार ने बंगाल की जनता के साथ धोखा किया है। प्रदेश में आने वाली भाजपा सरकार में सबका साथ, सबका विकास और सबका विश्वास होगा। हम विकास युक्त व भ्रष्टाचार मुक्त बंगाल बनाएंगे। #EbarSonarBangla pic.twitter.com/cdO1CKu3CF
    — Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) March 16, 2021

    “I am told that Mamata Banerjee is now doing Chandi Path. But in the last 10 years, you have been engaged in minority appeasement. You have stopped Saraswati Puja in the state and immersion of idols of goddess Durga,” he said.

    Banerjee did Chandi Path (recitation of hymns) at Nandigram, from where she is contesting, at a public meeting on March 9.

    “During the stone laying ceremony of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, you stopped people from offering puja in the state,” the BJP president said.

    Referring to the court verdict in the Batla House encounter case, Nadda said that the TMC supremo had claimed in 2008 that it was fake and would quit politics if proved wrong.

    Nadda asked, “What will she say now?” A Delhi court Monday awarded death penalty to convict Ariz Khan for the murder of decorated Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma in connection with the sensational Batla House encounter case of 2008.

  • Delhi court hands death sentence to Batla House encounter convict Ariz Khan

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Ariz Khan, convicted in the killing of a police officer in the 2008 Batla House encounter in Delhi, was sentenced to death on Monday by a Delhi court, which said it is the most appropriate punishment for ‘dreaded terrorists’ like him.

    “Nature of offence and manner of committing the crime caused extreme indignation to the society in this case,” Additional Sessions Judge Sandeev Yadav said, declaring that there was no doubt that Ariz and his accomplices fired at police officials “without any provocation”.

    The encounter between the Delhi Police and a bunch of Indian Mujahideen members holed up in a flat in South Delhi had led to the death of Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma while two others sustained injuries.

    The court also imposed a total fine of Rs 11 lakh on Ariz, of which Rs 10 lakh was ordered to be given to the family of Sharma, who was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra and many gallantry awards.

    Judge Yadav also sought to put an end to the allegations of the September 2008 police operation being a fake encounter.

    He held that police officials had no intention to kill the occupants of the flat, stating that some members of the raiding team were not even carrying arms.

    “It is obvious that convict Ariz Khan along with his accomplices fired at police officials without being challenged, instinctively…” the judge said, in the 22-page verdict.

    Ariz’s lawyer M S Khan had opposed capital punishment saying the incident was not premeditated. 

    “Deadly weapons like AK-47 and two pistols were retrieved from the flat where the shootout took place…. Considering the nature of devastation these weapons can cause, it will be safe to conclude that there was were kept in the flat with a view to indulge in terrorist and anti-social activities,” the court ruled. 

    The case will now go to the Delhi High Court for confirmation of the capital punishment. 

    Fits rarest of rare yardstick

    The court put the case in the “rarest of rare” category while agreeing with Additional Prosecutor A T Ansari that this was not just any killing but a murder of a law enforcement officer who was a defender of justice.

  • Batla House encounter explained: Controversies, polarisation and now death sentence

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: On September 19, 2008, a week after serial blasts tore through the capital, police stormed into a house in Batla House locality searching for terrorists.

    What followed has been written into contemporary history as the ‘Batla House encounter’ that polarised the city, caused a media frenzy and was even cinematically recreated in Bollywood.

    On Monday, the much debated Batla House gunbattle saw closure of sorts with a court here awarding the death penalty to alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) member Ariz Khan for the murder of police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.

    Two of Sharma’s colleagues were injured and two terrorists killed in the encounter.ALSO READ | Batla House encounter: Delhi court awards death penalty to convict Ariz Khan

    Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav also imposed a fine of Rs 11 lakh against Khan.

    The court said Rs 10 lakh should be immediately released to Sharma’s family members.

    Khan, who was arrested on February 14, 2018 after being on the run for a decade, was held guilty last week for the murder of Sharma, a celebrated officer of Delhi Police’s Special Cell, and other offences in connection with the encounter.

    The case stirred a political storm, led to rights activists questioning the actions of Special Cell officers, divided public opinion and continues to be a raging controversy.

    Over the years, the BJP and the Congress have sparred over it with the saffron party accusing the Congress of going soft on terrorism when in power.

    The BJP has lashed out at Opposition parties, including the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, for raising doubts about the encounter and asked them to apologise for it.

    Karnal Singh, then chief of the Special Cell, recapped many details of the police operation that fateful day at house number L-18 in the Batla House locality of Jamia Nagar in south Delhi in his book “Batla House: An Encounter that Shook the Nation”.ALSO READ | Ravi Shankar Prasad slams Congress, says Batla House incident designed to weaken morale of Delhi Police

    Fake news and “street rumours” were picked up by a section of politicians, activists and media to paint the 2008 Batla House encounter of IM terrorists as staged, he had said last year while talking about his book.

    Six days earlier, on September 13, 2008, a series of five blasts in the national capital killed at least 30 people and left over 100 injured.

    Karnal Singh spearheaded a probe into the blasts as the head or joint commissioner of police of the elite Special Cell that was raised specifically to undertake counterterrorist operations.

    The gunfight that broke out is viewed by many to be among the most politicised police encounters in the country.

    Congress leader Salman Khurshid’s reported remarks that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi cried seeing the encounter images also resulted in a political firestorm with the BJP accusing the Congress of playing appeasement politics.

    According to political observers, elections in Delhi till then were about development issues to woo voters but the Batla House encounter changed that.

    The politics of polarisation became part of the political landscape of the national capital after that.

    Political commentator and senior journalist Rasheed Kidwai said the undercurrents of polarising politics in the capital, which has been like a melting pot of the country, became very pronounced after the Batla House encounter.

    The incident gained traction in political discourse because it was a matter involving national security and politicians used polarising language which made matters worse, Kidwai said.

     The encounter also formed the basis of an action thriller film by the same name directed by Nikkhil Advani and starring John Abraham and Mrunal Thakur.

    After the encounter of September 19, 2008, protest rallies were organised against it by teachers and students of Jamia Millia Islamia University.

    The National Human Rights Commission(NHRC), which had conducted an inquiry in the case on the direction of the Delhi High Court, gave a clean chit to Delhi Police.

    The two suspected terrorists killed were Atif Ameen and Mohammad Sajid.

    Two other suspects, Mohammad Saif and Zeeshan, were arrested earlier.

    The court had said on March 8 that it was “duly proved that Ariz Khan and his associates caused murder of police official and fired gunshot on the police official”.

    The trial court had sentenced Indian Mujahideen terrorist Shahzad Ahmed in July 2013 to life imprisonment in connection with the case.

    His appeal against the verdict has been pending in the high court.

    Ahmed, who was arrested from Lucknow in 2010, had been declared a proclaimed offender along with Khan.

  • Batla House encounter: Delhi court awards death penalty to convict Ariz Khan

    By Online Desk
    A Delhi court has awards the death penalty to Ariz Khan for the murder of inspector Mohan Chand Sharma in the 2008 Batla House encounter case.

    Police sought the death penalty for Khan, allegedly associated with the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, saying it was not just any killing but a murder of a law enforcement officer who was a defender of justice.

    Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav also imposed a total fine of Rs 11 lakh against Ariz in the case. The court said Rs 10 lakh should be immediately released to the family members of Sharma.

    Advocate M S Khan, appearing for Ariz, opposed the death penalty and said the incident was not premeditated.

    The court had said on March 8 that it was “duly proved that Ariz Khan and his associates caused murder of police official and fired gunshot on the police official”.

    Inspector Sharma of the special cell was killed during the 2008 Batla House encounter in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi.

    The trial court had sentenced Indian Mujahideen terrorist Shahzad Ahmed in July 2013 to life imprisonment in connection with the case.

    (With PTI inputs)

  • Batla House encounter: Delhi court reserves order on Ariz Khan’s sentence

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A Delhi court reserved its order on Monday on the quantum of sentence for Ariz Khan, convicted for the murder of police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma and other offences in connection with the 2008 Batla House encounter.

    Police sought death penalty for Khan, allegedly associated with the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen, saying it was not just any killing but a murder of a law enforcement officer who was a defender of justice.

    Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav reserved the order for 4 pm.

    Additional Public Prosecutor A T Ansari, appearing for the police, said the case attracts exemplary punishment, which is capital punishment.

    Khan’s counsel opposed the death penalty. The court had said on March 8 that it was “duly proved that Ariz Khan and his associates caused murder of police official and fired gunshot on the police official”.

    Inspector Sharma of the police’s special cell was killed during the 2008 Batla House encounter in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi.

    A trial court had sentenced Indian Mujahideen terrorist Shahzad Ahmed in July 2013 to life imprisonment in connection with the case.

    His appeal against the verdict has been pending in the high court. Ariz Khan had fled from the spot and was declared proclaimed offender. He was arrested on February 14, 2018, and faced the trial.