New Delhi: The Delhi High Court will hear the petition filed by Ariz Khan, who was convicted in the Batla House encounter case, challenging the death sentence awarded to him, on March 21.
The High Court stated the reference received from the trial court will be heard, along with the appeal filed by Ariz Khan against capital punishment. When the trial court fixes the death sentence for someone, then the High Court stamps it after hearing the arguments of all the parties. A bench headed by Justice Siddharth Mridul in Saket court issued the order convicting the death penalty against Ariz Khan for the murder of prominent Delhi police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma in connection with the sensational 2008 Batla House encounter case.
The Delhi police inspector Sharma of the Delhi police's special cell was killed during the 2008 Batla House encounter between the police and the terrorists in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi following serial bomb blasts in the national capital in which 39 people died and 159 were injured.
Ariz Khan was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police in February 2018, 10 years after the incident, from the Indo-Nepal border. Khan is also accused of bomb blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Uttar Pradesh and Jaipur. It is alleged that he, along with four other terrorists, are accused of being present in a building in Delhi during the Batla House encounter in 2008.
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The trial court had termed the act of Khan firing on police party without any provocation as “abhorrent and brutal”. Khan's act shows that he was not only a threat to the nation, but also an enemy of the State. After Khan fled the spot, he was declared a proclaimed offender as he had managed to run away from the spot and eluded investigating agencies for almost 10 years despite a coercive process against him. He was later arrested on February 14, 2018, and faced trial.
Two of these terrorists were helped by Khan in escaping. The National Investigating Agency had announced a reward of Rs 15 lakh and Delhi Police Rs 5 lakh against the capture of the terrorist Ariz Khan. Khan, a resident of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, in this case, an accused Indian Mujahideen terrorist Shahzad Ahmed has been sentenced in 2013.
