The attorney of imprisoned Samajwadi party MLA Irfan Solanki, Gaurav Dikshit, has declined to represent him in court any longer on the grounds that he hasn’t received payment for the last four months and has had to pay for the costs of pursuing the proceedings against Solanki out of his own pocket.
Irfan Solanki allegedly owes a legal bill of Rs 32 lakh that has accrued over the course of four months, according to Dikshit. “I have been paying for all legal costs associated with his case from the very beginning. But for now, I am unable to defend his case,” Dikshit said in a media interview on Wednesday.
Gaurav Dikshit said that he has been asking for payment from Irfan Solanki, but the SP leader is avoiding the matter. Every time he asks for payment, Solanki’s family assures payment and gives him a date, but when the date comes, they don’t make any payment. Gaurav said that this happened several times. In the recent such conversation, they assured payment on 20 April, but when the date arrived, they went back on the assurance again.
Unhappy with the non-payment, the lawyer withdrew the bail plea of the jailed SP leader from the court on Tuesday. After that on Wednesday, he verbally told the court that he is refusing to represent his client as it is not possible for him to fight the case from his own pocket. In this context, the attorney has filed a complaint with the ADJ-1 court against the MLA.
The lawyer said that he has secured several favourable judgements for Solanki, but despite that, the family is refusing to pay him.
Talking about the matter, Joint Police Commissioner Anand Prakash Tiwari said that whatever complaint has been submitted by the lawyer, will be examined on the basis of merit.
While Gaurav Dikshit was handling all cases of Irfan Solanki, after he started asking for payment, his family recently hired two more lawyers, senior advocates Karim Ahmed and Syed Naqvi. After the refusal of Dikshit to work for Solanki, Ahmed and Naqvi will appear for him in court in future.
Irfan and his brother Rizwan are being detained at Mahe Rajganj Prison after an FIR was filed against them under the appropriate IPC provisions in connection with the arson case, whereby he and his brother, along with others, had set a woman’s home in Defence Colony on fire. A case was filed against him at the Jajmau police station. A total of 17 cases are registered against Irfan Solanki.
It is notable that the administration has seized properties worth crores from Irfan Solanki, and has identified more properties linked to him and his family.