Criminal lawyers Diwakar Sharma and G.D. Sagar claim that Mahmood Ali -- one of the accused -- was with them till 4.00 p.m. on March 18, the day Rattan was murdered. Rattan's post-mortem report states that he was killed between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.

Ali's sister Rukaiya Begum claims that Akhtar -- the co-accused, who has reportedly escaped to Bihar -- has not been n Delhi since March 15. Akhtar, who stays about 100 metres away from their house left for his hometown in Bihar to celebrate Eid with his wife, she says.

She alleges that the police have falsely implicated her brother since his deposition to a court has led to an inquiry against two constables of the Nizamuddin police station.

Ali had been arrested in connection with a theft case and was released on bail on March 15. Two days later, he went to meet Sharma to discuss the bail application for his friend Nizam a co-accused in the theft case. On March 18, says Rukaiya begum, Ali left his home at about 11.00 a.m with Rs 300 in his pocket. He left his Nizamuddin house in his autorickshaw.

Ali went to the chamber of Sharma in the Mehta Square of the Patiala House. Sharma says: ``I have known Ali since the past 10 years. He used to visit me regularly. On March 18, he came to move the bail application of his co-accused Nizam.''

After that, Ali also met another lawyer G.D. Sagar -- his chamber is opposite Sharma's. Sagar is said to have been handling a rape case in which one of Ali's relatives is an accused. ``He came to take details of the case. His relative who stays in Kotla Mubarakpur is an accused in the case,'' Sagar says.

Sagar is now handling Ali's case also. ``Ali has been remanded to police custody till April 7. His disclosure statement has been given under police pressure. It is a fabricated story. And if as a defence counsel my statement is not admissible then I shall withdraw as his counsel and prefer deposing as a defence witness,'' Sagar says.

Ali returned to his house at about 4.00 p.m and continued to be there till evening, says his sister. On March 19, Ali again went to Patiala House to meet Sharma and then left for Tees Hazari. According to Sharma, Ali did not look disturbed or hassled.

However, on March 30, the police reportedly went to Rukaiya's house and asked her to send Ali to the police station. ``Since it was Eid, I requested them to defer his attendance by two days,'' says Rukaiya. On April 1, the police again went to Rukaiya's house and allegedly abused her. In the evening, when Ali came back, he went to the Nizamuddin police station, from where he was taken to the Lodhi Road police station. ``It was only yesterday that I came to know about his arrest under charges of murder,'' Rukaiya adds.

DCP South PK Srivastava says the lawyers' version will be proved right or wrong in the court when the trial starts. ``This man, Ali, has 25 cases pending against him and between March 15 and 18, he is said to have committed offences in the Defence Colony area. Therefore, we stand by our statement,'' he says. ``As far as the sister Rukaiya is concerned, she has four cases pending against her.''

It was in 1990 that Ali got addicted to smack and got involved in petty thefts. His sister does not hide it. ``He was implicated in two drug peddling cases, one in 1990 and the other in 1997. But the court had acquitted him,'' she says. She says that after the two cases, the police had declared Ali a bad character of the Nizamuddin area.

Rukaiya says that Ali did not know electrician's job and he did not possess any instruments.``He had taken a three-wheeler on loan. Whatever he used to earn, some of it used to go as installment and the remaining spent on his family of three girls and wife''.