In NHRC records,Batla encounter ‘fake’

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) might have given a clean chit to the Delhi Police in July last year over the Batla House police encounter,but the official data released by the agency has included the incident in the list of fake encounters of the last 16 years.

The data was released in response to a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act filed in September 2008 by RTI activist Afroze Alam,a student at Jamia Millia Islamia. Two suspected Indian Mujahideen militants were killed along with Mohan Chand Sharma,an inspector of the Delhi police,on September 19,2008.

The High Court had directed the NHRC in May 2009 to conduct an inquiry and in its report filed two months later,the agency had said there was no violation of human rights by the police during the encounter. The official website of the NHRC reports the status of the case as “closed”. About the discrepancy,an NHRC official clarified that the list had been made on the basis of complaints. That,however,did not mean these were proven cases of fake encounters,he said.