Batla House row: BJP accuses Digvijay Singh of working under Sonia's orders

Gorakhpur, Jan 13 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Yogi Adityanath on Friday accused Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh of working under the directions of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and said that the former's remarks on the 2008 Batla House encounter were in direct contradiction with statements of the Prime Minister and Home Minister.

"Digvijay Singh has not been using his brain or intelligence before speaking, he works on the order of Sonia Gandhi and what is Sonia Gandhi's thinking about this country, everyone is aware of that," Adityanath told the media here.

"I consider such comments highly unfortunate and shameful that when the Prime Minister and Home Minister have admitted of militant involvement in the incident at Batla House, a senior leader of the Congress Party terms the incident as fake," he added.

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 told the media here, when asked to comment on Digvijay Singh's statements.

Digvijaya 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)