New Delhi: A Delhi court yesterday gave life term to Shahzad Ahmad, lone convict and a suspected Indian Mujahideen operative, in the 2008 Batla House shootout in which a police officer was killed, saying the incident “shocked the collective conscience of the entire nation”.
Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar Shastri, who July 25 convicted the 24-year-old man from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh for killing Delhi Police Special Cell Inspector M.C. Sharma in the shootout, awarded life term to Ahmad and also imposed a Rs.95,000 fine on him.
“There can be no deeper wound on the rule of law than to attack a police officer, while discharging his official duty,” the judge said.
The court said: “Ruminating facts of the case and also the circumstances of the convicts, I find mitigating circumstances more than aggravating ones and hence case in hands is not a ‘rarest of rare case’, which warrants death penalty upon the convicts.”
Judge Shastri said out of the Rs95,000 fine imposed on Ahmad, Rs40,000 would be given to the family of Sharma. Head constable Balwant Singh, who was injured in the shootout, would get Rs.20,000 out of the penalty amount.
The court said the case did not come under “rarest of rare case” category. However, no one can attack a police officer, while he is discharging his official duty.
“Masses from entire Delhi were seen weeping and mourning the death of that brave heart (Sharma). Traumatised intellectuals from all over the country went in pensive mood. All this is evident as how the incident shocked the collective conscience of the entire nation. This is also an aggravating circumstances,” the court said.
The prosecution had on Monday sought the death penalty for Ahmad, saying the case was in the category of “rarest of rare case”.
IANS
