Batla House row: Rajnath Singh seeks explanation from Sonia Gandhi

Dehradun, Jan 15 (ANI): Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajnath Singh has slammed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre for differing views on the 2008 Batla House encounter, and urged Congress President Sonia Gandhi to issue an official explanation.

"On one side, the spokesperson of the Congress Party terms the Batla house encounter as fake and on the other hand the Prime Minister and the Home Minister say another thing. I would want an explanation from Sonia Gandhi on this matter," he told the media in Uttarakhand's Dehradun city on Saturday.

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had earlier on Thursday said that the Batla House encounter was a genuine one.

"After looking into the matter, after I took over as Home Minister, we came to the conclusion that the encounter was a genuine encounter. Every authority who has looked into it (the case) has agreed that it was a genuine encounter. So, while there is a difference of opinion, I think the matter rests where it stands today. I don't think there is any scope for reopening that matter," he said when asked to comment on Digvijay Singh's statements.

Digvijay Singh, who had been expressing doubts on the issue, repeated on Wednesday that the encounter was fake and added it could not be probed, as the Prime Minister and Home Minister believed the encounter was true.

"The Prime Minister and Home Minister were of the view that the encounter was true. That's why I did not press it further," he said.

Batla House encounter officially known as Operation Batla House, took place on September 19, 2008, against suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists in Batla House locality in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, in which two suspected terrorist, Atif Amin and Mohamed Sajid, two other suspects Mohd Saif and Zeeshan were arrested, while one accused Ariz Khan managed to escape.

Encounter specialist and Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who led the police action was killed during the incident. (ANI)