Annual Report 2013-14 4.234 According to police report, the Special Cell of Delhi Police received secret information on the day of the incident, at around 8:00 pm, disclosing the time and place of arrival of the notorious Ayub-Aslam gang. A raid party, consisting of 41 officials, was set up, under the Assistant Commissioner of Police, of Khajuri Khas. This police party was in possession of one official Qualis, five private vehicles and 3 motorcycles. Upon seeing the Tata Sumo in which the alleged gang members were traveling, ACP gave warning to them to surrender, as per police statement. The first round of firing between police and criminals lasted for 15-20 minutes. After firing ceased, 4 gangsters were found to be injured and a search was made for the remaining gangsters. The second round of firing, which lasted for 5 minutes, occurred when the remaining two criminals fired upon the police party. In this, one more gangster was injured while the other managed to escape into the darkness. A large quantity of weapons was recovered from this gang and despite this heavy firing, neither the police vehicle nor the vehicle used by the criminals got damaged. No police personnel were injured. 4.235 As per the statement by SHO of Khajuri Khas, there were no signs of bullet hit marks at the site of the incident, however a large number of empty cartridges recovered from the site substantiated heavy firing. 4.236 The Commission observed that there were several discrepancies with the raid as well as the subsequent lack of forensic examination of equipment from the site. No police party was deployed in the ‘Khadar’ area, which was an open and deserted area beside the site of incident and reason for non-deployment at that strategic area was not explained by the Special Cell. 4.237 As per the post mortem reports, several injuries on all of the examined bodies of the deceased revealed injury due to blunt force, as either fall over a hard object or impact of lathi and rotatory injuries due to dragging across a hard object, like stone. Thus, the MER pointed out that, as per the deposition of post mortem doctor, the deceased were physically assaulted before they were hit and killed by police bullets. 4.238 With regard to the investigation into the encounter, the Commission observed that no efforts were made to trace the ownership of the seized Tata Sumo that was used by the deceased and no efforts were made to record the statements of family members of the deceased. While the family members of the deceased claimed to have met the IO and the officers of the Special Cell, the later categorically denied meeting with them. 4.239 The Commission further observed that the Inquest was conducted by the local police of Khajuri Khas and not by the SDM. The post-mortem samples were not sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), till a year later when the Khajuri Khas Police Station submitted a final report on the matter and the samples were only submitted in 2009, 3 years after the incident. 4.240 In the Magistarial Enquiry Report (MER) the Enquiry Officer concluded that no due diligence was paid to any facts or circumstances in the investigation into the incident, rather, NHRC | 69