SC says no to probe for Delhi encounter killings

SHOOTOUT AND SENTIMENT: A file photo of the September 2008 shootout in Jamia Nagar, New Delhi.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea for an independent judicial probe into the killings of two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists and a Delhi Police inspector in the September 2008 Batla House shootout in Jamia Nagar at New Delhi.

A bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan dismissed the plea that the slain youths were innocent, saying "how can innocent people have arms and kill police".

The appeal had been filed by the rights group Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (Anhad), challenging a Delhi High Court ruling that absolved the police of any wrongdoing in the Batla House gunbattle.

The High Court had accepted a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report while giving Delhi Police a clean chit.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan insisted on a judicial probe saying that the NHRC probe was merely based on the police version, but the bench rejected the assertion and said: "What do you think? The police officer was killed (elsewhere) and brought there."

As Bhushan talked of suspicion, resentment and lack of confidence in a large section of society over the role of the police following the shootout, the bench said: "This is the problem. Criminals are criminals. Don't identify them with any section of the society."

"Thousands of policemen are killed in this country while fighting terrorists and criminals," the judges observed.

The probe would cause them unnecessary harassment, they said.

Seeking an independent judicial probe, Bhushan said one of the young boys had four bullets pumped vertically downward into his head while the other had deep abrasions on his back.

The injuries showed they were not caused during the course of a normal gunbattle, Bhushan contended, but the court rejected his contentions.

Delhi Police's officer M C Sharma was killed during the police action against the suspected terrorists on September 19, 2008 in the aftermath of the serial blasts six days earlier.

The two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists who were killed were identified as Atif Amin and Mohammed Sajid. Two other Indian Mujahideen suspects Mohammed Saif and Zeeshan were arrested from the Batla House area.

The police action came after they tracked the cellphone of Atif Amin, who was believed to have led the team that planted bombs in several places of the capital on Sep 13 last year, triggering five blasts killing 26 and injuring 133.