NEW DELHI: Despite its ally Samajwadi Party’s repeated demand for a judicial probe into the Batla House encounter, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has not yet taken any stand on the issue.
SP leader Amar Singh raised the issue again yesterday during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but was not given any assurance. “I raised the issue for a judicial probe with the PM. But as I was not assured anything on it, my party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will raise the issue during the UPA-SP coordination committee meeting likely on Oct. 14,” he told reporters after his meeting with the premier.
Expressing SP’s concern about Muslim community sensing “insecurity” after the encounter, Amar Singh said: “The attacks on Muslims in Assam and violence against them in Maharashtra has created a sense of insecurity. The SP is concerned about it.”
During the hourlong meeting with the PM in the presence of National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, he discussed the “attacks on minority community” and the Indo-US nuclear deal, Amar Singh said.
Amar Singh’s recent comments on the Batla House encounter have raised a furor in the Congress party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the media circles.
Clarifying his stand on their reports about his having demanded resignation of Home Minister Shivaj Patil, Amar Singh said: “The media had raised questions on the authenticity of the encounter. I had only suggested that maintaining the Congress tradition, the home minister should step down pending a judicial probe.”
If a judicial probe proves that those arrested after the encounter were guilty, “the police was free to shoot them. But they are innocent till proven guilty,” Amar Singh said. On “reports” of his funding terror outfits, Amar Singh said: “This is not true.”
“I had offered to fund legal expenses of those arrested in the encounter. I took this decision as those arrested in the encounter are from Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh), which is my hometown too,” he said.
