TRUTH BEHIND SHOOTOUT MUST COME OUT: COURT

The Delhi High Court on April 8 said it is concerned not only with the case of shootout in Batla House in which two persons and a police inspector were killed, but also with every such case and wants the truth to come out.  Hearing a public interest petition demanding a magisterial inquiry into the shootout, a division bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said, “We are concerned not only with the Batla House encounter case but about all such cases. If such inquiry is not conducted, truth would not come out.” The court asked the police if the National Human Rights Commission’s guidelines for such cases, recommending a judicial inquiry, are mandatory or not. But the NCT government pleaded before the Delhi High Court that a magisterial inquiry into the Batla House encounter would demoralise the police force.