New Delhi: The Delhi High Court will hear, on September 22, the appeals moved by two convicts challenging the death sentence and life term handed out to them in the Batla House encounter case of 2008.
Days after serial blast in the national capital, in which at least 26 people were killed and 133 injured, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell, on September 19, 2008, carried out an encounter in Jamia Nagar’s Batla House, in which two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists and Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma died.
Appellants Ariz Khan was convicted of the murder of Inspector Sharma and other offences and sentenced to death while the other, Shahzad Ahmed, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the case.
Both were allegedly associated with terror outfit Indian Mujahideen.
A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Amit Sharma listed the matter for hearing on September 22 after considering the city government’s request.
On March 15, last year, a trial court had called the case a “rarest of the rare” case, while awarding death penalty to Ariz Khan, who had fled from the spot and was declared a proclaimed offender. He was arrested on February 14, 2018, and faced trial. Police claimed that he was present at Batla House and managed to give police a slip during the encounter.
A trial court had, in July 2013, sentenced Ahmed to life imprisonment in connection with the case.
