Batla House encounter: Court to pass sentence today, prosecution seeks death

[caption id=“attachment_994135” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shahzad Ahmad is also facing trial in the 2008 Delhi serial blasts case. Image courtesy: Ibnlive[/caption] New Delhi: Arguing that the crime committed by Shahzad Ahmad, convicted for his role in the 2008 Batla House encounter, falls under the rarest of rare cases, the prosecution has asked the court to award him the death sentence. On 26 July the court convicted Shahzad of firing at police officials and causing death of police officer MC Sharma in the controversial encounter case. Murder in the rarest of rare cases is punishable with the death penalty. Making the case that there were no mitigating circumstances that called for a more lenient sentence, the public prosecutor argued, “Despite the police party entering the house after identifying themselves, they were fired upon…the police had no motive other than to apprehend the occupants.” “If they had any other intention they would have called for a larger force and not ventured without a bullet-proof jacket as inspector MC Sharma did,” the prosecutor said. The public prosecutor argued that in the case of Shahzad “there was no scope for rehabilitation or reform” and that while deciding the quantum of punishment it was “necessary to take into consideration not only the rights of the accused but also the rights of the victims, their families and the interest of society.” Rejecting the prosecution’s argument that Shahzad had a history of crime, since he was accused in the 2008 Delhi serial blasts case, the judge said, “he will be presumed innocent till proven guilty.” Shahzad, dressed in a red-blue checked shirt and jeans, was seen listening intently to the arguments. The defence opposed the plea for the death penalty arguing that the crime did not constitute ‘a rarest of rare’ case. The shootout, the defence argued, was not pre-meditated and  it was the prosecution’s own case that it was “a spur of the moment” incident. The defence further pointed out that the victims were not helpless women or innocent children, but armed police officers and therefore the crime did not fall under the rarest of rare categories of crime. “We still believe we are a reformative society and chance has to be given to reform. We have moved on from the eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth canon,” defence counsel Satish Tamta told the court. The judge will pronounce his order on the quantum of punishment today. While convicting him, Shahzad was held guilty of destroying evidence, assaulting public officials and preventing them from performing their duties. Shahzad was said to have fled from Batla House along with Junaid (still absconding) during the shootout. He was arrested in 2010. The encounter took place between the Special Cell of the Delhi Police and suspected terrorists at a flat (L-18) located in a crowded and predominantly Muslim neighbourhood called Batla House in South Delhi, on the morning of 19 September, 2008, six days after serial blasts ripped through Delhi. The encounter left Inspector MC Sharma and two alleged terrorists dead. One of the occupants of the flat Saif surrendered and wasn’t charged in the case. Shahzad, 24, is from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and is also an accused in the 2008 Delhi serial blasts case.