New Delhi: The fate of Shahzad Ahmad, lone convict and Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative in the 2008 Batla House shootout case, will be decided by a Delhi court today, with the prosecution seeking death penalty in the “rarest of rare case”.
The plea to hang Ahmad was made yesterday before Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar Shastri, who convicted the 24-year-old man from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh for killing Delhi Police Special Cell Inspector M.C. Sharma in the shootout.
The court after hearing arguments of the prosecution and the defence reserved the verdict on the punishment for the convict for today.
The prosecution, while seeking death penalty for Ahmad, 24, told the court that the accused killed Sharma and injured head constables Balwant Singh and Rajbir Singh while they were performing their duty, so he be given death penalty.
Special Public Prosecutor Satwinder Kaur said: “This case falls in the rarest of rare category. I request the court to give maximum punishment, that is death.”
The prosecution said while awarding any punishment the court should also take into account the pain of the family of inspector Sharma.
“For the interest of society, the interest of the victim’s family, I pray to court that the convict be given death,” said the special public prosecutor.
Kaur cited a few Supreme Court verdicts, like in the case of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab and bomb blast convict Devenderpal Singh Bhullar, and said “this (Batla House) case has also shocked the collective conscience of society”.
The prosecution told the court that the aim of police was only to apprehend the terrorists, and if there was any other aim they wouldn’t have gone without bulletproof jackets.
IANS
