A Delhi court has awarded the death penalty to a convict in the Batla House encounter case, observing that the murder of Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma fell into the rarest of rare category.
Ariz Khan was sentenced to death by Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav.
While demanding the death penalty, the prosecution had argued that the convict is a “menace to the society and would continue to be so, threatening its peaceful and harmonious coexistence.”
Additional Public Prosecutor AT Ansari told the court that this was a gruesome murder of a law enforcement officer and defender of justice while discharging his lawful public duty, and therefore, a serious exercise must be undertaken for determining the quantum of sentence.
“If police officers are allowed to be murdered by the designer of murder and law does not express its strongest condemnation by way of extreme penalties, then justice to those who are called up to defend justice would fail. This facet of social justice in certain circumstances demands the death penalty,” Ansari told the court.
Surjitt Sahani
