Salman Khurshid takes U Turn on Batla House encounter remark

Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid takes a U turn on his remark to woo the Muslim vote-bank that pictures of the Batla House encounter case had brought tears to the eyes of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. "I was not a minister at that time but still took the issue of the Batla House encounter to Sonia Gandhi. When we showed photographs of that incident to Mrs Gandhi, she wept bitterly," he had reportedly said, adding, "She asked me to go immediately to the Prime Minister to discuss the matter. I talked to the PM and it was decided that the matter would be further investigated and even the decision to appoint some retired chief justice of the Supreme Court to look into the matter was taken. Everything was ready, however due to election time, we could not do something as some people were in opinion that at the time of election, this thing could not be done." Khurshid said at an election meeting in Karmaini village under Sagri Vidhan Sabha area yesterday but after 24 Hours he takes U turn after BJP, SP and other parties attack and ask to clear stand by congress on his remark. Mr Khurshid has clarified that he only said Mrs Gandhi became emotional when she was shown the photographs. Mr Khurshid's clarification came hours after he seemed to have courted yet another controversy over his remarks during campaigning in Uttar Pradesh.

What was Batla House encounter Case:  Batla House encounter officially known as Operation Batla House, took place on 19 September 2008, against suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists in Batla House locality in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, in which two suspected terrorist, Atif Amin and Mohamed Sajid were killed while two other suspects Mohd Saif and Zeeshan were arrested, while one accused Ariz Khan managed to escape. Encounter specialist and Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who led the police action was also killed during the incident. The encounter led to arrest of a number of local people, leading to widespread allegations and protests by political parties, civil society groups, activists, especially teachers and students of the Jamia Millia Islamia University. Several political organizations like the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) demanded a judicial inquiry into the encounter, in the Parliament, as "new versions" of the encounter, started appearing the newspapers. Subsequently, on the Delhi High Court's directive on 21 May 2009, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its 22 July report cleared the police of any violations of rights.