Delhi High Court commutes death sentence of Batla House encounter convict to life term [Read Judgment]

The Delhi High Court on October 13 commuted death sentence awarded to Ariz Khan, convicted in the 2008 Batla House encounter case in which Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma lost his life, to the life imprisonment.

A bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Amit Sharma upheld the March 2021 judgment of the trial court convicting Khan of the police officer's killing, but declined to confirm the capital punishment, saying that there was "nothing on record to attribute the fatal shot responsible for the death of the Inspector to any particular accused".

"In the present case, the shootout which took place at Batla House was neither pre-planned nor pre-mediated. It is the case of the prosecution itself that the 
raid was conducted for apprehending the suspect Atif Ameen @ Basir and in pursuance thereto, the police party reached the flat and was subsequently fired 
upon," the court noted.

"The Trial Court, while imposing death sentence on the appellant observed that the fact that the appellant fired at the police
party without any provocation itself shows that he is threat to the society and also an enemy of the state. The said observations were premised on the fact that the 
present appellant is involved in various bomb blasts which resulted in the death of hundreds of innocent people and therefore, the learned Trial Court concluded that 
the case of the appellant is a 'rarest of rare case," the bench said.

Six days after five synchronised bomb explosions rocked the capital, killing 39 people and wounding 159, on September 19, 2008, a team of Delhi Police's Special Cell raided a hideout of blast suspects at Batla House.

Two suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists were killed in the operation while Sharma, an officer of the Special Cell, succumbed to bullet injuries. Khan and another alleged IM operative, Shahzad Ahmad, were also present at the hideout but had managed to escape.

Having noted that the case does not fall under the category of a 'rarest of rare case', the court said rigorous imprisonment for life would be an appropriate sentence for Khan.

The court also imposed a total fine of 1.15 lakh on Khan for all the offences, noting that he was not capable of paying a fine of 11 lakh imposed by the trial court.

The court further noted that Khan, along with other persons, was an occupant of a flat at Batla House. Admittedly, the police had no prior information regarding Khan as he was neither a suspect nor a person being probed at that stage, it said.

"We have already held that the testimony of the eyewitnesses, and other corroborating material establish the presence of the appellant at the place of incident and the factum of his firing at the raiding party while fleeing from the spot," the court said.

"But it is pertinent to note that there is nothing on record to attribute the fatal shot responsible for the death of the late Inspector to any particular accused," it added.

[Read Judgment]