Was Batla House Encounter Fake? Here＊s Everything About The 2008 Case That Inspired The Film

On Sept 13, 2008〞about a week before Batla House encounter〞five bombs had ripped through Delhi at different places including GK＊s M Block, Connaught Place and Karol Bagh＊s Gaffar market. About 30 people died and over 100 were injured.

Three other bombs were found and defused just in time before they could cause further destruction. This happened in the same month when similar blasts were witnessed in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Jaipur.

And that is what led to the Batla House encounter!

What exactly happened at the encounter?

In order to unravel the conspiracy of serial blasts, on Sept 19, seven officers of Delhi Police led by Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma from the Special Cell of Delhi police stormed flat每 108, L-18, Batla House, Jamia Nagar 每 alleging (on the basis of the cell phone information) that a suspected terrorist was hiding in there.

One officer went to the house while others were blocking the exit areas of the locality. He wore a tie that day and introduced himself as a representative of Vodafone and asked if the phone numbers he had belonged to the people staying there. When he got a nod of consent, he called up Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma to inform that his ※clients§ were there.

Dressed in casuals, when Sharma along with his men came up to the flat, which was on the second floor, a scuffle reportedly led to gunshots.

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It was said that the alleged terrorists fired first which followed a 20-minute encounter.

It was reported that there were five suspected terrorists in there. Out of which two of them -- Atif Ameen and Mohammad Sajid -- were killed. Mohammad Saif was arrested and other two 每 Shahzad and Junaid -- managed to escape. That＊s what the Police said.

The two suspects who died were quite young. Mohammad Sajid was a minor at the time of his death. On the other hand, Atif Ameen had enrolled in a MA Programme in Human Rights.

Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma also sustained bullet injuries during the encounter and later succumbed to his injuries.

assettype.com/Mohan Chand Sharma martyred in Batla House encounter.

Was the encounter fake?

Just a day after the encounter, journalists and human rights activists speculated the encounter location and raised questions about foul play. Various politicians also alleged that the encounter was fake.

Meanwhile, the police had filed the charge-sheet against Shahzad, Ariz Khan (who absconded), Atif Ameen and Mohammed Sajid on 28 April 2010 accusing them of killing Inspector Sharma on 19 September 2008.

Several other arrests were made after the incident.

Within days after the Batla House encounter, Saquib Nisar, a friend of Atif Ameen was arrested. He confessed on a news channel that he knew Atif. He was arrested for participating in the blast conspiracy.

Furthermore, the caretaker of the house Abdul Rehman and his son Zia Ur Rehman who went to the police station voluntarily to show the copy of police verification of the house were also arrested on charges of forging the rent lease agreement and framing the blasts respectively.

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Several questions were also raised and a lot of facts hinted a foul play.

- Why was Sharma not wearing a bullet-proof jacket when he knew he was going for an encounter? The police reportedly said that he removed the jacked before entering the Batla House because he didn＊t want the suspects to get a hint.

- It was said that some of the officers who didn＊t go up on the second floor had blocked all the exit points. Then how did the two suspected terrorists manage to flee?

- Why was Atif Ameen shot 12 times from behind? The shots were all close-range. But if the terrorists had fired the gunshots first, then how come Atif was only shot from behind?

- Who shot Inspector MC Sharma?

- Why there wasn't a witness? Why no statements were recorded? The encounter took place in a crowded area and neither a neighbour nor anyone else present there was interrogated.

- In fact, the suspected terrorist Mohammad Saif who surrendered and was in the washroom when the incident took place wasn＊t questioned. Why wasn＊t he a witness during the trail?

- Why was there no enquiry to establish how Sajid and Arif died?

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After a year, one of the terrorists who escaped was arrested.

After a year, one of the two suspected terrorists Shahzad was picked up from Azamgarh in Feb 2010. While the police said that he was discovered on the basis of the passport that was recovered from Batla House, the details in response to an RTI did not mention of any passport. The police, however, blamed the sloppy paper work for this.

On the other hand, in his statement, Shahzad said, ※I am innocent and have been falsely implicated in this case＃ I never made any disclosure statement. My signatures were obtained forcibly and same were fabricated by the police. I was picked up by officers of Anti Terrorism Squad Lucknow from my house (in Azamgarh). A complaint in regard of kidnapping was also lodged,§ he said.

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The court also couldn＊t find any evidence to support his involvement in the case. After three years of trial and 77 witnesses, he was sentenced to life in 2013 with fine of Rs 95,000. He was accused of killing Sharma, attempting to kill other officers and destructing the evidences.

The court＊s statement also stated that it relied ※only on circumstantial evidence, with no direct proof of Shahzad＊s presence in the house on that day. His fingerprints were not found in the flat, nor were there any other items belonging to him 每 save an expired passport. In fact, the court goes well beyond even the prosecution＊s case in order to explain how Shahzad might have escaped. While the prosecution had alleged that Shahzad escaped in the melee caused by the crossfire, the court invents the possibility of Shahzad hiding or taking shelter in other flats of the building, forgetting even the legal maxim that the prosecution is obliged to prove the case in the manner it has been alleged§.

Shahzad＊s sister said that her brother was falsely implicated and that he was innocent. She said she would fight for justice. In 2014, Delhi High Court accepted his appeal against the conviction and the trial is on.

What is the other side of the story?

Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association published two books about the alleged framing of the youths by Special Cell of Delhi Police. ※The NHRC guidelines on encounter killings were trampled upon with impunity 每 not the least by the NHRC itself,§ the association said. Also, the NHRC enquiry report was only based on the testimony of senior officials.

※The NHRC had access to the post-mortem reports of the three deceased and referred to these reports in its enquiry to endorse its clean chit. While it spent about 630 words on the one and a half page of Inspector Sharma＊s post-mortem; it expended merely 73 and 17 words on Atif and Saji＊s postmortem respectively, which were four pages each. It was as if the NHRC shrank away from explaining the deaths of the two boys,§ said a JTSA report.

A movie on the Batla House encounter has been made that stars John Abraham in the role of Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, then-inspector who is now a DCP posted with Special Cell who was one of the first people to reach at the encounter location after the suspected terrorists were found. Sanjeev Kumar Yadav was put under the scanner when theories of it being a fake encounter were doing the rounds.

To prep up for his role, John Abraham spent time with Special cell DCP Sanjeev Kumar Yadav in order to understand the incident.

"Playing someone who is still serving [in the police force] is a big responsibility. I spent time with him to understand the incidents that happened [after the encounter] and what was going on in his mind during that time. I didn't want to take any [creative] liberty because the film does not take sides. It is not anti-or pro-any community. The idea is to build a conversation around the episode," he was quoted as saying by Mid-Day.

The movie promises to unravel the truth. Watch the trailer below.

Batla House is all set to release on Aug 15.