2008 blast: Court drops charge agnst Batla House caretaker

New Delhi: A city court on Tuesday let off the caretaker of the Batla House flat in South Delhi, where two suspected militants were killed in an encounter in 2008, in a cheating case.

Additional Sessions Judge R K Tripathi discharged Abdul Rehman, who was arrested on September 20, 2008 for offences of forgery and cheating under the IPC, on a complaint lodged by the owner that he had forged his signatures to rent the flat to tenants alleged to be engaged in terror activities.

Rehman's lawyer M S Khan had submitted that no offence of cheating was made out as there was no evidence to show that he had forged the rent agreement.

The accused was the caretaker of the L-18 building in the Batla House in Jamia Nagar where the alleged terrorists were holed up.

According to the prosecution, Mohsin Nisar had lodged a complaint on September 20, 2008 alleging that he had given his flat to his steno Abdul Rehman asking him to let it out on rent.

He had claimed that Rehman had told him that he was giving it to two students and one lecturer of Jamia Milia Islamia University on a rent of Rs 2,000 per month but when he saw the agreement, he found that his signatures were forged by Rehman and the rent was Rs 7,000 but he used to get only Rs 2,000.

An FIR was lodged against him at the Jamia Nagar police station and a charge sheet was filed in 2015.

A court here had on July 29, 2016 framed the charge of cheating under section 420 of the IPC against Rehman, which was challenged by him before the sessions court.

The Batla House encounter, as it had become known, had taken place on September 19, 2008, in which two suspected terrorists were killed and two other suspects arrested.