Rampur camp attack: Another defence lawyer pulls out

“I moved the application when I noticed that Kausar’s family was not interested in pursuing the case. They did not contact me,nor were any instructions given to me on how to proceed further,” said Junaid,who is also contesting the case of another accused Gulab Khan. He moved the application for withdrawal on Thursday before the court of Additional District Judge G S Pathak.

Kausar’s younger brother Anwar Farooqui said he did not know about the development. “A few days ago,Junaid was annoyed with me when I did not send the money to pursue the case. I told him that as soon as money was arranged I would send it to him,” said Anwar. He,however,rejected Junaid’s claim that the family was not interested in pursuing the case. “I was talking to him regularly about the progress made in the case. After Kausar’s arrest,the burden of his family also fell on me. His wife and his three children are staying with us,” added Anwar,who runs an electrical shop in Pratapgarh,which was earlier run by Kausar.

Last month,defence lawyers of two Pakistani nationals,Imran Shahzad and Mohammad Farooq,withdrew from the case. Lawyers Rajnish Srivastava and Nitish Sharma cited the reason that they were busy with other cases and could not prepare properly due to paucity of time. Seven CRPF men and a rickshaw puller died in the attack which took place on the intervening night of December 31,2007 and January 1,2008.

Seven persons were arrested by the STF. Two of them,Mohammad Sharif and Jung Bahadur Khan alias Baba,were arrested from the Rampur bus stand. On the basis of their information,the police arrested two Pakistanis and one Bihar resident Sabauddin outside the Charbagh railway station in Lucknow. Information provided by them helped the police to nab Kausar Farooqui and Gulab Khan.