No Cover Under Fire

• The authorities have kept the autopsy report of Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma who died in the encounter a closely guarded secret.
  
• The bullets that killed Sharma and the two alleged terrorists have not been sent for forensic tests
  
• There is no clarity among the 'experts' on whether Sharma was shot from the front or the back
  
• How many bullets hit Sharma? Two or three? The press release from the police special cell says three. The doctor who performed the autopsy says two bullets.
  
• Why was the inspector not wearing a bullet-proof vest?
  
• What happened to the spent shells? Were they recovered from the spot?
  
• The police claim there are two entry and exit points in L-18, the flat the 'terrorists' were staying in. But there is only one door in the front. So how did the two 'terrorists' escape?

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So, what is it about the September 19 "encounter" that is worrying the party bosses? A most disturbing discrepancy relates to the death of Sharma—with huge gaps between the official police version and that emerging from department sources. The official take is that Sharma died from bullet injuries fired by the militants living in L-18, Batla House, Jamia Nagar; that there were five young men when the police contingent led by Sharma went up to the fourth floor flat (of these, two were killed, one was arrested and two escaped). The unofficial version is very different. This one has it that Inspector Dharmendra, wearing a tie, first went up to the flat, knocked on the door and introduced himself as a Vodafone representative and asked whether the phone numbers he had belonged to the people there. When the three young men concurred, he called Sharma to inform him that "his clients" were there. Sharma and his men rushed up. At some point thereafter, a scuffle seems to have broken out between the plainclothes cops and the young men, who were apparently unarmed. Sharma and Constable Balwant received injuries in what is being described as "friendly fire".

Sharma received two bullet injuries, one in the left shoulder/left upper arm area and the other in the left upper abdomen/left hip region. The second left him debilitated and two of his colleagues helped him down the four floors and rushed him to Holy Family Hospital. More policemen then went up, shot dead Atif Ameen and Sajid, and arrested a third, Saif. According to this version, there were only three young men when the police went up; no one escaped as it was impossible to do so, given there is only one entry and one exit point, both of which were covered. All the windows in the three-room apartment have grills, and the jump from the terrace is at least 20 feet, a police source said. The other gaps in the police claims relate to:

• the verification done by the local station after the five boys moved to L-18 on August 15, 2008. The details given in it are reportedly correct, and it is accompanied by a rent agreement document signed on non-judicial paper. The police claim the boys forged the verification document; Jamia Nagar residents allege the police never did an ID check when the papers were submitted.
  
• Atif's bank account in Azamgarh was alleged to have Rs 3 crore; the bank manager says it was just Rs 1,400
  
• arrested terror suspect Saquib Nissar providing logistical support for the Ahmedabad blasts. At the time he was sitting for his MBA exams in Delhi. To this, the police say that he went on a recce trip and has admitted he was not present there on D-day. Going by this version, he must have remote-controlled the explosions while holding down a job, giving exams and partying.

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