In connection with the 2008 Batla House encounter attack, a Delhi court sentenced accused Indian Mujahideen (IM) militant Ariz Khan to death on Monday. On March 8, Khan was found guilty by a city court of assassinating Delhi Police special cell inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who headed the action on September 19, 2008.
The court said on 8 March that it was “duly proven that Ariz Khan and his partners were responsible for the assassination of a police officer and fired gunshots at a police officer.”
Calling it one of the “rarest of the rare cases” that deserve the death penalty,
Khan, a native of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, was apprehended by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police in February 2018 after leaving the city in 2008. Last week, he was found guilty in the investigation. Khan is also accused of being the mastermind behind the 2008 string of bombings in Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh.
In addition to imposing the death penalty on Khan, the court also levied a fine of Rs. 11 lakh on him, with the court demanding that Rs. 10 lakh be released immediately and granted to the family of deceased inspector Sharma.
In 2013, one Shahzad Ahmed, who had also survived the Batla House shootout with Khan, was arrested and jailed. Two of their accomplices, Atif Amin and Mohammed Sajid, had been killed in the incident. The seventh, Mohammed Saif, was arrested on the spot.
During his days in Nepal, he came into touch with Riyaz Bhatkal, who then encouraged him to re-launch Indian Mujahideen. In 2014, he visited Saudi Arabia to reinforce the terrorist organization and interacted with a number of IM and student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) members.
Khan returned from Saudi Arabia in 2017 to pave the foundations for the resurrection of IM. On February 13, 2018, he was arrested in India at the Banbasa border crossing between India and Nepal. SIMI protester Abdul Suhan, who had been convicted a month before, sent the cops a tip about his intentions.
