The Delhi High Court on Tuesday imposed a stay on the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) order to the Delhi Police to hand over the postmortem reports of people killed in the Batla House encounter last year. It observed that any revelation could hamper the ongoing probe into the serial blasts.

Justice S Ravindra Bhat found favour with the Delhi Police’s contention that a disclosure at this stage, when they were yet to arrest a few absconding accused and collect other evidence, could dent their efforts in the cases related to the blasts that shook Delhi on September 13, 2008.

“Two terrorists died and two escaped in the incident (encounter). We are still trailing the absconding suspects. Disclosure of postmortem reports can reveal information regarding the kind of weapons used and other details, on the basis of which many corroborative evidence can be destroyed,” argued Mukta Gupta, counsel for the police.

On March 9, the CIC had directed the police to hand over within ten days the postmortem reports of those gunned down in the encounter, including that of the slain officer, M C Sharma.

The police were also asked to give copies of the FIR in the case to senior advocate Prashant Bhushan. As a matter of caution, the CIC had, however, allowed the police to withhold the name of the person who filed the FIR, details of the police officers involved in the encounter and subsequent probe and that of the doctors who conducted the postmortems.

The police moved the High Court, challenging the order.

... contd.