Batla House encounter
New Delhi, Aug 18: The Delhi High Court on Friday reserved its verdict on confirmation of death penalty awarded to Ariz Khan following his conviction in the sensational 2008 Batla House encounter case in which decorated Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma lost his life.
“Arguments have been heard. Judgement reserved,” said a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Amit Sharma after the lawyers for the convict and the State concluded their submissions.
Advocate M S Khan argued that there was nothing to suggest that Ariz Khan can’t be reformed.
“If there is a probability, not possibility, that the convict can be reformed, life sentence is the rule. There is a probability of transformation and reformation,” he submitted.
Special Public Prosecutor Rajesh Mahajan, representing the government of NCT of Delhi, said killing a uniformed police officer was a “rarest of rare” case which justified the death sentence.
He also placed before the court Ariz Khan’s social investigation report and psychological analysis report, and submitted he has “adequate intellectual and cognitive functioning” and his conduct in jail was “unsatisfactory”.
Inspector Sharma of the Delhi police’s special cell was killed during the encounter between the police and terrorists in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi on September 19, 2008. Two terrorists were also killed in the encounter which took place days after five synchronised bomb explosions rocked the national capital, killing 39 people and wounding 159. Sharma had raided the place while looking for the terrorists responsible for the blasts.
The trial court had on March 8, 2021, convicted Ariz Khan, saying it was duly proved that he and his associates murdered the police official and fired gunshots at him.
On March 15, 2021, it had awarded Khan the capital punishment and also imposed a fine of Rs 11 lakh on him, making it clear that Rs 10 lakh should be immediately released to the family members of Sharma.
Subsequently, the high court received a reference for confirmation of the death sentence awarded by the trial court to Khan.
Besides awarding the death penalty to Ariz Khan, the trial court had also sentenced Indian Mujahideen terrorist Shahzad Ahmed to life imprisonment in the case.
Shahzad, however, died in jail during the pendency of the appeals and the proceedings against him were abated. (PTI)