The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday questioned the weight of a Delhi Police argument that a magisterial probe into the September 19 Batla House encounter will “demoralise” policemen.

“The magisterial inquiry is to know if a police bullet, which killed a suspect in the encounter, was really intended for his leg... how can such an exercise demoralise the police force?” the apex human rights body retorted.

The remarks, made in a hearing on Wednesday before a HC Bench led by Chief Justice A P Shah, was in reply to an affidavit filed by the police on April 8, opposing the call for a magisterial probe into the Batla House encounter made by the NHRC.

The court further sought a reply from the NHRC whether the ongoing investigations by the Crime Branch might be considered a probe by an independent agency, as required by 2003 guidelines.

“The Crime Branch is part of the Police department itself... this kind of an investigation does not carry public credibility. A quietus in this case will happen only if the HC nominates a judicial officer to conduct an independent inquiry,” a civil rights lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who filed the PIL submitted before the court. In 2003, the top human rights body had insisted on revised guidelines for police encounters, which underlined that a magisterial enquiry must “invariably be held in all cases of death which occur in the course of police action”.

The NHRC had continued to recommend a magisterial probe despite the fact that Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna had denied permission for one.

... contd.