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Delhi police chief insists Red Fort
accused was killed in self-defence

Delhi Police Commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma, at his annual press conference on Friday evening, admitted that it would have been of great help if one of the main accused in Red Fort shoot-out case, Abu Shamal, was not shot dead by the police.

"The matter is being investigated by the National Human Rights Commission and let it arrive at a proper conclusion. Till then we will have to wait," he said.

"Our effort was to get him alive, because if that had happened, we would have been able to get more information from him. But we had little choice, because as soon as our people entered the house where he was hiding, he started shooting. We had to fire in self defence and he was killed," said the commissioner.

He termed 2000 as a year of achievements for the Delhi Police, as it recovered large quantities of RDX from the arrested militants. "We arrested more than 40 militants during the year and prevented many accidents. The capital has become a hot target for militant outfits like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and others and we are ready to meet the challenge," he added.

He admitted that there has been a decline in improving the image of the Delhi Police. "We have received complaints against officers and in many cases we have taken action. We are making efforts to improve our image," he explained.

Another senior police officer denied that the Union home ministry had recently asked two of them to go to Jammu and Kashmir and that they had refused." We are three of us at the special commissioner level and none of us have been approached by the home ministry to serve in Jammu & Kashmir," said the officer.

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