Congress distances from Digvijay's fresh claims on Batla issue

New Delhi, May 25: Congress on Wednesday distanced itself from party leader Digvijay Singh's fresh claims on the 2008 Batla House encounter, insisting that it was genuine as has been reaffirmed by the then Home Minister Shivraj Patil.

"The courts and the NHRC had upheld it as genuine," party chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

His statement came close on the heels of Patil reaffirming that the encounter was genuine and asked Congress general secretary Singh to prove his claim.

Surjewala said the party has regard and respect for Singh, who is an "elder", but the stand taken by the then Congress government and the then Home Minister on the issue is "proper".

Singh on Tuesday had stuck to his earlier stance that the Batla House gunfight, in which two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists were killed, was "fake" even as video footage telecast on a TV channel claimed that a suspect Bada Sajid was seen in an "IS video".

PTI