New Delhi:
The peace that the gun-fire of September 19, 2008, shattered at Batla House in Delhi's Jamia Nagar, has never returned, say residents of the area.
Hamid Ali, who lives right next door to L-18, where the Batla House encounter took place, says, "our biggest loss has been that since that day if our engineers go to get a job and their address says Batla House, they don't get the job. We have been defamed."
Five years ago, a Delhi Police team crashed into L-18, an apartment where four young men from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh were living. The cops alleged that they were Indian Mujahideen operatives responsible for serial blasts in Delhi earlier that year. After intense firing, two of those men lay dead. One escaped, one was arrested.
Also killed that day was Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma of the Delhi Police special cell. A Delhi court will give verdict today on whether Inspector Sharma was killed by Shahzad Ahmad, the only man arrested, when he allegedly opened fire at the police team.
Shehzad is charged with the murder of Inspector Sharma , criminal conspiracy and firing on the police team.
The encounter triggered a divisive political controversy. There were allegations that the police had staged a fake encounter. The National Human Rights Commission however gave the Delhi Police a clean chit and the Delhi High Court ruled that it was not a fake encounter.
But questions have remained. On the alleged terror links of the men raided that day. On why Inspector Sharma was not wearing a bullet-proof jacket. Also, the court has asked, why were two Delhi Police officers not carrying arms.
In another part of Delhi, Inspector Sharma's son, who was only 12 when his father died, wants answers too. He hopes he will get some when the court gives verdict today.