In an unprecedented move, a Delhi-based lawyer turned down the requests by the landlord of the infamous L-18 Batla House to defend him in the court. Keeping the 'national interest' above his 'bread and butter', the lawyer withdrew the application moved in the court seeking bail for Abdul Rehman, caretaker of the Jamia Nagar house where the encounter took place on Friday. Rehman had moved the court for his bail through lawyer Santosh Kumar on Sunday. But on Monday during the hearing in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar , he withdrew on the grounds that 'his conscious did not allow defending advocates of terrorism'. "I had taken up the case of Abdul Rehman because he appeared to be an innocent person. But after the police revealed his connection with Zia-ur-Rehman who has been arrested under terror charges, I refused to plead for him," Santosh Kumar told The Pioneer. He also said that he had agreed to defend him keeping in view the interest of the judiciary, but later he decided to keep national interest above everything. Kumar added that Rehman had told him that he had rented the house to the outside students, but when police arrested them for conspiring and executing the serial blasts, he decided to give up the case. Moreover, the revelation that Zia-ur-Rehman, one of the arrested terrorists, also made him withdraw from the case. A city court on Monday extended the hearing on the bail petition of Abdul Rehman till Wednesday. The hearing was extended after defence counsel Santosh Kumar withdrew the bail application and refused to plead for Rehman. On the other hand, another lawyer Amarnath also filed an application before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar seeking permission to defend the case of Abdul Rehman. Santosh Kumar said the police had earlier arrested him under the charges of cheating and forgery of documents. According to Santosh, Rehman himself had told him that he collected an amount of Rs 7,000 per month from them, whereas the rent agreement showed that he had rented the flat for just Rs 2,000. He also informed that Rehman had put his fake signature on the affidavit to clinch the agreement with the lessor. But the fact that he had rented the flat to his own son and that too in an illegal manner put a question mark on his intentions, he added. Rehman, who is also the father of Zia-ur-Rehman, one of the terrorists arrested by the police on Sunday morning, had approached the court after he was remanded to 14-day judicial custody. The police had booked Rehman under sections 420, 468 and 471 of IPC, that deal with cheating and forged documentation. He is accused of providing affidavit with fake signature of the landlord to Atif alias Bashar, the alleged main man of Indian Mujahideen who carried out September 13 serial bombings and was killed in the encounter with police on Friday. source : The Pioneer
