Police express doubts over witness to shootout

Revelations that the sole eyewitness to last Sunday's encounter in the city in which two alleged Pakistan-based militants were gunned down by the local police could be an unreliable person has added a new twist to the high-voltage drama, giving rise to debate whether the Delhi Police may have started to indulge in witch-hunting.

The Delhi Police now claims that Dr Hari Krishna, a south Delhi-based practicing homoeopathic doctor, may have pulled a fast one on the media and even the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that slapped a notice on the Delhi Police for killing unarmed persons on the name of an encounter.

Dr Krishna surfaced after the shootout in the basement parking of upmarket Ansal Plaza shopping mall claiming that the two alleged militants were not only unarmed and appeared drugged when they where shot dead by policemen from close range.

His interview to this effect to a local daily was the basis for a petition moved with the NHRC.
The police say that since they have committed themselves to respond to the NHRC notice, they started to investigate background of his eyewitness to find out if he is a reliable person at all.

They now say that it appears that Dr Krishna was not even on the spot when the encounter took place on the eve of popular Hindu festival of Diwali.

Besides claiming that the eyewitness has a suspected criminal background with three FIR registered against him at Agra and Hathras in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh state this year alone, the police also say that their inquiries so far revel that no car entered the basement parking while the encounter took place.

Dr Krishna had claimed that he drove into the parking lot while the shooting was on despite attempts to stop him and saw the police firing at the two unarmed youth.

About his background, the police now claim that they have unearthed three FIRs filed against the doctor, including one of harassing his wife for dowry and attempt to murder. Moreover, they also say that the degrees the doctor claim to have appear to he fake.

"Most of the degrees he uses with his name, like DF-Hom (London), Afaz, MBBT-Hom and MRSH (London) appear to be fake. Our inquiries will soon reveal his real identity."

Dr Krishna claims to be a chest and cancer specialist and has reportedly gone underground since the Sunday shootout.

His annoyance with the NHRC during an interview with a private television news channel on Thursday for ordering police protection for him when he faces no threat to his life or any police harassment to his family has already weakened the case against the police, since none of the other eyewitnesses to the shootout have so far claimed that it was a cold-blooded murder and not an encounter killing despite several unexplained gaping holes in the police theory.

The instant reaction of the Delhi Police was that the eyewitness may be trying to get some free publicity for himself by making false claims.

This theory of the Delhi Police gets some credence since a journalist working with a local afternoon tabloid, first to interview him, told Gulf News yesterday that not only Dr Krishna requested him to introduce him to the readers as a "chest and cancer specialist" but also showed him a loaded pistol to drive home the point that he is quite capable to defend himself and does not need any police protection.

Delhi's Joint Commissioner of Police Neeraj Kumar, meanwhile, said his department had "totally exposed" the doctor who sparked national outrage with his claims that the gunbattle was nothing but murder and that the two had been unarmed when they were shot by police, reports AFP.

"Hari Krishna is now totally exposed as a liar as we now have conclusive proof that this man was not even there at the time of the shootout to give any account of the event.

"We are looking for him and we want to question him why he made such allegations," the chief of the highly-secretive anti-terrorism unit said in an interview.

Meanwhile, Pakistan yesterday declined to collect the bodies of the two militants killed by the police on the weekend at a New Delhi shopping mall saying they were not Pakistani citizens.

India had asked Islamabad to collect the bodies of two men saying they were Pakistani nationals.

Allegations of a so-called eye-witness that the pair were unarmed when they were slaughtered has cast a shadow on what the police has billed as a hugely successful counter-terrorism operation.

"We think as has been extensively reported in the Indian media, the so-called incident was a fake encounter," said Jaleel Abbas Jilani, the seniormost diplomat in the Pakistani high commission in New Delhi.

"Obviously, Pakistan cannot accept the fake evidence invented by the Delhi police," he said in reply to questions that India insisted that while one of them hailed from the Pakistani city of Gujranwalan the other belonged to the district of Kasur.

"So, we reject the Indian contention that the so-called terrorists were Pakistani nationals," Jilani added.

India also says the two men belonged to the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and were sent from across the border to attack civilians during the festival of lights, Diwali.

A similar request to Pakistan by India after an attack by five militants at the national parliament in December went unanswered as Islamabad rejected New Delhi's claims that the attackers, who were killed, were Pakistani citizens.