The Hindu : Ansal Plaza encounter: Delhi doctor goes into hiding

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 08, 2002

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Ansal Plaza encounter: Delhi doctor goes into hiding

By Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI NOV. 7. The doctor who alleged that the "encounter'' at the Ansal Plaza basement here on Sunday evening — in which two terrorists were killed — was orchestrated has gone into hiding despite having been assured immediate protection by police at the instance of the National Human Rights Commission.

In a partial compliance report, the Delhi police today told the NHRC that they would provide adequate protection to Dr. Hari Krishna. The complete report would be submitted within a week, the Joint Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Neeraj Kumar, said.

Dr. Krishna, a cancer specialist and gynaecologist who has a clinic at Greater Kailash Part-II in South Delhi, today told a section of the media over phone that police were not harassing him and that he did not need protection. A day earlier, his wife had claimed that he had left for Australia to see his ailing son-in-law.

Dr. Krishna had claimed that he was in the underground parking lot of Ansal Plaza when the "unarmed" and "crippled" terrorists were gunned down by plainclothes sleuths. Mr. Kumar said police would certainly record Dr. Krishna's statement. To substantiate its claim that the shootout was genuine, the Special Cell is said to have sought help from the Intelligence Bureau and the Military Intelligence.

Well-informed sources said the agencies which were instrumental in providing information to the Special Cell about the presence of the Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives had intensified their efforts to establish the terrorists' identity. The mobile phone recovered from the terrorists contained three Pakistani numbers.

Since the agencies had prior information about the terrorists, it is said that the inputs about their movements had earlier been shared with the Union Home Ministry. Reacting to allegations about the "fake" encounter, police said such a view was gaining ground as no civilian or policeman was injured in the encounter.

Meanwhile, police said the post-mortem examination of the bodies of the terrorists — which had been preserved for 72 hours — would be conducted only after clearance from the Home Ministry.

In a related development, police have found that the Maruti car used by the terrorists belonged to Mohammad Gulrez Baqur, a resident of Tilak Nagar in West Delhi. He told police that he had bought the vehicle from Lucknow in February and it was stolen from outside his house on July 22.

Mr. Gulrez, who works in a software consultancy firm, reported the matter to police, but an FIR could not be registered as, according to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, West Delhi, Deependra Pathak, he could not give the chassis number and other details of the car.

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