Batala House gunfight fake, reiterates Digvijaya

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday stuck to his earlier stance that the 2008 Batala House gunfight here was "fake" even as a video footage telecast on a TV channel claimed that a suspect Bada Sajid was seen in a "IS video".

"First of all I always said it was a false and fake encounter and I still hold the same view.

"It is for the investigative agency to prove that (presence of suspect is IS video). We had asked for a judicial probe... if that had been accepted everything would have come out in the right perspective," the Congress leader told media persons here.

Suspected terrorist Mohammed Sajid alias Bada Sajid, who reportedly escaped from Delhi on the day of the gunfight at Jamia Nagar area of south Delhi could be one of the fugitives who featured in an alleged IS propaganda video, said a TV report on Tuesday.

It claimed Bada Sajid is one of the five people who allegedly featured in the 22-minute video posted by the IS recently. Police and home ministry sources said Sajid belonged to the Azamgarh module of the Indian Mujahideen (IM).

The Congress leader had claimed earlier that the gunfight in which Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was killed was "fake", saying: "My objection to the 'encounter' was simple as in an 'encounter', no one can get five shots on the head."

On the case of Sajid, he said: "There are hundreds of Sajids, I do not know."

However, he said if the government, the National Investigation Agency and Research and Analysis Wing have any evidence against anyone to prove about their involvement in such terror acts, "they should be strongly prosecuted".

Meanwhile, a home ministry source merely said that the matter as reported in the TV channel will be looked into.

The Batala House gunfight took place a week after five serial blasts in Delhi on September 13, 2008 in which at least 30 people were killed and over 100 injured.

The issue of alleged "fake encounter" was also used politically chiefly by Samajwadi Party and Congress.

Seven Delhi police personnel had stormed an apartment building in Batla House in Delhi's Jamia Nagar were that terrorists from the Indian Mujahideen were allegedly hiding.

Two suspected terrorists were shot dead while one named Shahzad was arrested and a fourth had reportedly managed to escape. They all belonged to the Azamgarh area of Uttar Pradesh.

--IANS

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