Batla House encounter: Accused tells court evidence against him planted

An alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorist, arrested in the 2008 Batla House encounter case, told a Delhi court on Thursday that the evidence against him was “planted”. A trial court here in July 2013 had sentenced Indian Mujahideen terrorist Shahzad Ahmed to life imprisonment in connection with the Batla House encounter case.

An alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorist, arrested in the 2008 Batla House encounter case, told a Delhi court on Thursday that the evidence against him was "planted". Accused Ariz Khan, who was arrested in February 2018, after a decade of allegedly being on the run, made the submissions before Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav, defence advocate M S Khan said.

The claim was made during the final argument where advocate Khan, appearing for the accused, told the court that the prosecution was "heavily relying on two photographs of Ariz, which were allegedly recovered from a wallet and his educational certificate, both found at the crime scene after the incident". "However, neither of the two initial investigating officers (IO) of the case talked about these evidence in their report. Also, he was not named in the FIR. Both the IOs even told the court that they had not seen any of these evidence during their investigation," advocate Khan said.

He said there was no evidence to relate him with the flat or to prove his presence there on the fateful day. "The evidence is not beyond the reasonable doubt and were planted to falsely implicate my client," he said.

Ariz Khan was arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell. Police has claimed that he was present at Batla House, along with four others, and had managed to give police the slip during the encounter on September 19, 2008 in Delhi's Jamia Nagar, in which two Indian Mujahideen terrorists were killed and as many arrested.

Encounter specialist and Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who led the police action, was also killed during the operation. A trial court here in July 2013 had sentenced Indian Mujahideen terrorist Shahzad Ahmed to life imprisonment in connection with the Batla House encounter case.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)