The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to confirm the death penalty for Ariz Khan, the main accused in the Batla House encounter case which had claimed the life of Delhi Police’s inspector Mohan Chand Sharma. A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Amit Sharma upheld a trial court order convicting Khan of the murder of the police official but refused to confirm the capital punishment.
Delhi High Court did not consider the case as rare of the rarest, stating that the circumstances of the present case are not sufficient to bring it into the category of rarest of the rare case. The court said during the incident the nation lost an eminent police officer who sacrificed his life in the line of duty and his contribution the nation will never forget.
The court further said that there is nothing on record to hold any particular accused responsible for the death of the late Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma. "In the present case, we hold that the eyewitness testimony and other evidence in the case establish the fact of Ariz Khan's presence at the scene of the incident and firing on the raiding party while fleeing from the spot," the court said.
The court said in its written order that Delhi Police had no prior information about Ariz Khan's presence there, Ariz Khan was not a suspect in the case nor was any investigation going on against him. The court said that Ariz Khan has not been convicted in any case before, and cases against him are still pending. The court reduced the fine amount of Rs 11 lakh imposed on Ariz Khan by the lower court.
The trial court convicted Khan on March 8, 2021, saying it was duly proved that he and his associates killed the police official and fired gunshots at him.
Sharma, an officer of the Delhi Police's Special Cell, was killed in the encounter between police and terrorists in south Delhi's Jamia Nagar on September 19, 2008. Two terrorists were also killed in the encounter that took place days after five synchronised bomb explosions rocked the national capital, killing 39 people and wounding 159.
