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Court says no to independent probe into Batla House killings
The Supreme Court Friday dismissed a plea for an independent judicial probe into the killings of two young men in a gunbattle with police at Batla House in the capital's Jamia Nagar locality last year.
The Supreme Court Friday dismissed a plea for an independent judicial probe into the killings of two young men in a gunbattle with police at Batla House in the capital's Jamia Nagar locality last year.
A bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justices P. Sathasivam and B.S. Chauhan dismissed the lawsuit saying that the armed youths firing at policemen could not be innocent.
The bench said the probe would unnecessarily harass policemen, thousands of whom were killed by criminals and terrorists.
The rights group Act Now had filed the lawsuit for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), challenging a Delhi High Court ruling giving clean chit to police in the Batla House gunbattle with suspected terrorists.
Two young men were killed Sep 19 last year at Batla House last year after policemen stormed a flat in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi. The youths were allegedly involved in serial blasts in the national capital.
The gunbattle also claimed the life of Delhi Police's "encounter specialist" Mohan Chand Sharma.
The police action came after they tracked the cellphone of Atif Amin, who was believed to have led the team which planted bombs in several places of the capital on September 13 last year, triggering five blasts killing 26 and injuring 133.