Not enough, says Sharma's family

Shahzad Ahmed, the lone convict in the Batla House case, should have been given a harsher punishment, feels the family of slain inspector Mohan Chand Sharma who was killed by the suspected IM operative during the 2008 encounter. HT reports.

Shahzad Ahmed, the lone convict in the Batla House case, should have been given a harsher punishment, feels the family of slain inspector Mohan Chand Sharma who was killed by the suspected IM operative during the 2008 encounter.

Shahzad, convicted of killing the special cell officer, was on Tuesday given life imprisonment by a trial court. He was pronounced guilty on Thursday after years of debate over the genuiness of the encounter.

"We are not satisfied with the judgment. The punishment should have been harsher," said Devendri Devi, Sharma's mother.

"My son wanted to eliminate terrorism from the country. Now whenever there is a blast, I feel my son's life went in vain," she said. Mohan Chand Sharma's wife Maya said Shahzad was responsible for the death of her husband and several others who had died in the Delhi serial blasts in September 2008.

"This is the minimum punishment he could have got. Stricter punishment would have acted as a deterrent. He was not a normal criminal but a terrorist," she told a news channel.

"Shahzad was among the men who killed my husband and should have got the strictest punishment. Others responsible for his death are still at large," she said.