'Govt. running away from probe on Batla House encounter: Shahid Siddiqui

With a Delhi Court all set to pronounce its final verdict in the five-year-old Batla House encounter case, former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Shahid Siddiqui on Thursday demanded a through inquiry into this controversial episode, saying it is in the interest of everybody.

Siddiqui said doubts have been raised from the very first day on whether the Batla House encounter was a genuine one or not.

"I believe that the Government of India should have appointed an independent inquiry commission to go into it so that all the doubts could be laid to rest, but since the government has refused to do that the doubts remain whatever the judgement the doubts will remain. And therefore, I believe that it's not a question of doing justice. It's also being seen that justice has been done and that is not happening," said Siddiqui.

"I don't know why the Central Government is running away from inquiry. Even when a leader of the Congress Party Digvijay Singh has raised doubts about the genuineness of the encounter, the Government of India should not run away from an inquiry. Still there is time, it should be done. I think it is in the interest of everybody," he added.

A Delhi court will decide today on whether Shahzad Ahmad, a young man from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, opened fire at a police team to kill Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma in what is called the Batla House encounter, five years ago.

The police alleges that Shahzad is an Indian Mujahideen operative, and one of four men responsible for serial blasts in Delhi in 2008.

Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh had described the encounter as fake, but his party later distanced itself from his remarks.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who was then the country's Home Minister, ruled out reopening the case which resulted in the killing of Indian Mujahideen commander Atif Ameen, and asserted that the encounter was genuine.

The shootout between the special cell team and the alleged IM terrorists in Batla House locality in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, took place six days after serial blasts hit the national capital on September 13, 2008, leaving 30 dead and over 100 injured.

Acting on a tip-off regarding 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.