Fake news and "street rumours" were picked up by a section of politicians, activists and media to paint the 2008 Batla House encounter of IM terrorists as staged, retired IPS officer and the then chief of the Delhi Police special cell Karnal Singh has said. The 1984-batch officer of the Union Territories cadre has come out with a book -- Batla House: An Encounter that Shook the Nation -- on the police operation on September 19, 2008 at house number L-18 in the Batla House locality of Jamia Nagar in south Delhi.

The book has been published by Rupa Publications. The officer was spearheading a probe into the 2008 Delhi blasts as the head or joint commissioner of police of the elite special cell that was raised specifically to undertake counterterrorist operations.