Anniversary of Batla house Fake encounter: protest held, judicial probe demanded

New Delhi: Dilli Police Murdabad, Sheila Dikshit Murdabad, NHRC Murdabad were the slogans in the air in Jamia Nagar area on Friday on the eve of the first anniversary of the Batla House encounter. The marchers carrying torches and placards under the banner of Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association were demanding a judicial probe into the encounter.

The Special Cell of the Delhi Police conducted the encounter on September 19, 2008 at the House No. L-18 in the Batla House locality of Jamia Nagar, killing two Azamgarh youth whom the police described as terror suspects. Civil rights groups said it was a fake encounter. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is believed to have prevented a judicial probe for fear of losing Hindu votes in the Assembly poll held last December. After much protest National Human Rights Commission conducted a probe only to give a clean chit to the police. The NHRC report was blasted by human and civil rights activists and lawyers.

The protest march started at 6:45 pm from Khalilullah Masjid near the L-18 – the site of the encounter – and took a round of Jamia Nagar area under a blanket of heavy security.

Addressing the gathering at the end of the protest, Manisha Sethi, president, JTSA, said: Ishrat Jahan was killed in a fake encounter, and this could be proved only through a magisterial enquiry. But here in Delhi, Lt Governor said he is satisfied with the Delhi Police report on the encounter. Moreover, the NHRC has done an ugly joke with us by carrying out a fake enquiry of a fake encounter. “The NHRC did not hear the locals, the civil rights activists and the Azamgarh people who had petitioned to depose before the Commission,” said Sethi, a brave woman in the forefront of the movement for judicial enquiry into the Batla encounter since the Day One.

“For the last one year we have been demanding a judicial probe into the encounter and we will not sit down until our demand is met,” she announced.

Atif and Sajid were killed in the encounter and Delhi Police Inspector MC Sharma sustained bullet injuries which he succumbed to later in the evening on the day.

Newly elected Okhla MLA Asif Muhammad Khan, who kept the issue on the top of his election campaign, said that after the victory his priority will remain the same. “Our priority has not changed. We will continue to demand a judicial probe into the encounter. The government says the probe will down the morale of the police. I say if the police are wrong only then their morale will be down otherwise, if the slain youths were terrorists, then their morale will go up. Then why are they shying from a judicial probe?” Two Circles