Digvijay maintains Batla House encounter was fake, says will never apologise to BJP ever

A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded his apology for having earlier raised questions about the genuineness of the Batla House encounter, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Friday said he still stands by his earlier statement that the incident was fake.

"My fight with the BJP is of different ideologies. In my lifetime, I will never apologize to the BJP," Singh told media here.

"Whatever I had said was after a lot of thinking, based on facts," he added.

Singh had earlier raised questions about the shootout, remarking that it was hard to understand how one person could have received five to six gunshot wounds in the head during a shootout. He had said that he was only expressing a personal opinion.

Singh had also said that he had no doubt about the courage of Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma who was killed in the shootout.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who was then the country's Home Minister, asserted that the encounter was genuine.

"I spent a lot of time pouring over the papers and talking to officers involved. And I was satisfied that it was a genuine encounter. Unfortunately, we have lost a brave police officer. It was also unfortunate that some of the suspects have escaped. I am told that the lone captured terrorist was held guilty. I am glad that the police have been able to prove their case," Chidambaram said.

A Delhi court on Thursday convicted lone suspected IM operative Shahzad Ahmad for murder and other offences in the 2008 Batla House encounter case.

Shahzad was held guilty for murdering police inspector Sharma and assaulting other police officers.

Acting on a tip-off on some terrorists involved in the blasts, the police team led by Inspector Sharma went to Batla House on September 19. Sharma was killed during the incident.