Batla House encounter: Accused wants judge to visit site

Delhi Police today concluded final arguments in the 2008 Batla House encounter case while the lone suspected Indian Mujahideen operative facing trial moved a plea requesting the judge to visit the flat from whose balcony the cops claimed he had escaped after the gunfight.
Accused Shahzad Ahmad moved the plea before Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar Shastri saying the judge should visit the spot in Jamia Nagar to see if it was possible for anyone to jump off the balcony from the fourth floor.
Delhi Police opposed his plea saying it has sufficient circumstantial evidence and phone call records to prove that Shahzad was present in the Jamia Nagar flat at Batla House and was among those who fired at the police party leading to the death of inspector M C Sharma.

During the hearing, Shahzad's counsel Satish Tamta moved the plea saying, "The geography of the place is that there are roads in front and back of the house, and single storey houses on both sides. How could someone vanish from the fourth floor of the building?"
Tamta also claimed that Shahzad was not at the flat and has been implicated in the case.
The court, however, declined the plea saying that layout of the building had not been disputed by the police.

"Every fact that you want to prove is already admitted by the prosecution. What difference would it make if the presiding officer visits the place," the judge asked.

During the final arguments, police said Shahzad, along with another accused Junaid, had jumped off the balcony and fled after firing at the police party during the September 19 Batla House encounter.
The police rebutted Shahzad's claim that neither was he present in the flat with other associates nor had he fired at the raiding party and also that he was kidnapped from his village Khalispur in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh.
It said that the police personnel who were members of the raiding party have identified Shahzad as one of the occupants of the flat who fired at the raiding team and then escaped with another associate.