- SWATI SINGH
By the end of the first half of 2008, India witnessed several bomb blasts in different cities. The first series of blasts happened in Jaipur on 13th May which killed 63 people in nine blasts, this was followed by nine blasts in Bangalore on 25th July killing 2 and 21 blasts in Ahmedabad on 26th July which had the death count of 56.
The final target was New Delhi which witnessed 4 bombs going off on the evening of 13th September, the remaining 4 bombs were diffused by the Delhi Police bomb squad.
Indian Mujahideen which is an offshoot of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India claimed responsibility for all the blasts through the email sent to an Indian news channel. The mail sent after the first blast in New Delhi says “Indian Mujahideen strikes back once more. Within 5 minutes from now… This time with the Message of Death, dreadfully terrorising you for your sins. And thus our promise will be fulfilled. Inshallah…Do whatever you want and stop us if you can.” This mail had a 13-page document as an attachment which largely contained pictures of previous blasts and captioned as “Our Jihad”.
Mumbai ATS tracked the IP address to Chembur, simultaneously arrests were made from different locations of New Delhi by Delhi Police Special Cell. Based on the investigation and intelligence received, L-18 Batla House, Jamia Nagar was put on stalk out by Special Cell. When it was confirmed that the suspects for the series of bomb blasts were hiding in this rented accommodation of Batla House it was decided to confront them. Seven member team of Special Cell led by encounter specialist Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma reached L-18 Batla House on 19th September 2008. Another team led by the deputy of Special Cell ACP Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, PMG********* was placed on stand-by. The instruction was to capture the suspects alive.
First Sub-Inspector Dharmendra went in disguise of Vodafone sales executive and confirmed that suspects are still in that room. Then Inspector Sharma with his team went ahead to confront them and that’s when the sound of shots getting fired was heard downstairs, ACP Yadav went ahead and charged. Inspector Sharma and Head Constable Balwant received bullet injuries and were evacuated to the hospital. Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma succumbed to these injuries on the same day at the hospital.
While the gun battle was ongoing, locals gathered around L-18, Batla House, and started chanting slogans against the police. Taking the cover of which 2 terrorists were able to escape while two were shot dead and two of them surrendered. One of the suspects who were not in L-18 at that time, Mohammed Sajid aka Bada Sajid who belonged to Azamgarh ran away and joined ISIS. He was among the six Indians who joined ISIS.
“Batla House Encounter”, the name by which we know it today, involved youth from the minority community and it was obvious that this would take a political turn.
Questioning the encounter for Political Gain
Mohammed Saif who surrendered during the encounter confessed his involvement and even told the investigating agency that the other two terrorists Shahzad Ahmed and Ariz Khan were active members of Indian Mujahideen. In their twenties, these terrorists were enrolled in Jamia Millia Islamia in undergraduate courses.
As the news spread, the infamous Jamia Millia Islamia Student union came out in support of the killed terrorist. Prashant Bhushan and CPI-M leader Kavita Krishnamurthy joined the protests called by the student union. The Vice-Chancellor of JMI announced legal aid for the arrested terrorists and demanded a judicial inquiry against the Special Cell.
Shahzad who belonged to Azamgarh got the backing of the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party which sent thousands of party workers via train to protest in Jantar Mantar. Similarly, Digvijay Singh, Mamta Banarjee termed the encounter as fake. In a widely shared video, during a rally in Azamgarh then Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid said “Madam Gandhi cried bitterly seeing pictures of encounter” and judicial inquiry about the encounter may take place while he is in office.
Ironically the only opposition party of that time which didn’t question the encounter or the police proceedings was the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In 2009, an NGO “Act Now for Harmony and Democracy” which is headed by communist social activist Shabnam Hashmi filed a PIL in court for judicial inquiry. Representing their case was activist-advocate Prashant Bhushan. This PIL was quashed by the Supreme Court terming the motive as demoralizing for the Police Force.
While the supreme court didn’t order a judicial probe, the National Human Rights Commission conducted a probe in this matter. During its investigation, NHRC found nothing wrong in the said encounter and cleared Special Cell of any human rights violation.
While the charge sheet was filled in court by Delhi Police and trial was in progress, several advocates, intellectuals, and activists conducted their fact-finding mission in the Batla House area. The said report had a different narrative and in turn, questioned the Delhi Police. These allegations were later answered by then Joint CP Karnal Singh in his book “ Batla House – An Encounter That Shook The Nation”. He was also the lead investigating officer of Batla House encounter. He terms the allegations as baseless and politically motivated.
As per his book, since the said location was in a Muslim populated area and it was the month of Ramadan, Delhi Police decided the time of raid to be in the morning. Further to draw less suspicion, the team was ordered to wear Casuals. He terms this as the reason for the special cell team not wearing bulletproof jackets. The police vehicle which was parked near the mosque area had the team’s bulletproof jackets and AK-47s which the team let go as the order was to capture them alive.
As Ariz Khan got convicted for the murder of Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, AC(P), PMG******. The Batla House case is finally closed. While Batla House Encounter remains the most controversial encounter ever, one question remains unanswered, how low the political parties can reach for their mere political gains by compromising national security?
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