A post which claims that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar made 26/11 terror attacks' convict Ajmal Kasab's lawyer, Majeed Memon, a Rajya Sabha MP, has gone viral on social media.
The claim compares this to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielding the case's special public prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, from the Mumbai North Central constituency for the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
An archive of this post can be seen here.
(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)
How did we find out?: We looked for the names of the lawyer who represented Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab during his trial in the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court.
We found that "no lawyer was prepared to defend" Kasab when he was accused, as his case was considered "indefensible," Outlook reported.
However, every accused is entitled to a lawyer to defend themselves in court as per the law, which led to Kasab being represented by several lawyers, Firstpost said.
Kasab's lawyers: Looking for the list of lawyers defending Kasab, we came across a 2018 report by The Economic Times, which named advocates Amin Solkar and Farhana Shah.
It mentioned that Solkar and Shah had represented Kasab in the Bombay High Court, had not received their legal fees six years after the convict had died by hanging.
The report mentioned another lawyer, Abbas Kazmi, who had also defended Kasab. Kazmi said that he had received remuneration for his work in a timely manner.
Kazmi was dismissed by the trial court in Mumbai in 2009, "for refusing to follow the court's directive," Reuters said in its report. After Kazmi's dismissal, his assistant, KP Pawar represented Kasab.
A video report by NDTV corroborated this information and identified Ujjwal Nikam as a special public prosecutor in the 26/11 terror attacks case.
After being sentenced to death by the Bombay High Court, Kasab moved the Supreme Court to appeal the verdict, which upheld the sentence in 2012, ending the trial.
In the apex court, senior advocate Raju Ramachandran and his junior, Gaurav Agarwal, defended Kasab. Both lawyers refused to accept legal fees for their work, wishing to donate the amount to "Maharashtra Legal Services Authority or the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee or any other organisation working for poor litigants," Ramachandran told Hindustan Times.
Majeed Memon and the 26/11 case: We did not find any report or document which connected Memon to the 26/11 trials.
However, we came across a 2008 article on The Times of India's website, titled 'Why I will not stand up in court for Kasab', penned by Memon.
The noted criminal lawyer, who defended some of accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, said he would "not defend him in court because his case is indefensible. We have all seen him committing the crime. His guilt is beyond doubt."
As per Memon's X account, he became a Member of Parliament in 2014, and was a member of the NCP at that point, according to several reports.
Memon became MP two years after the case ended.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
He was a member of the NCP throughout his time as MP, from 2014 - 2020, as mentioned on PRS India's website.
Memon was a member of the parliament till 2020.
(Source: PRS India/Screenshot)
In 2022, Memon left the NCP and joined the TMC, shortly after he was denied a second tenure as MP by the former, as per a report by The Hindu.
More on Ujjwal Nikam: Nikam, who was appointed as a special public prosecutor in the 26/11 case, was given a ticket to contest the ongoing general elections by the BJP.
Nikam contested from the Mumbai North Central constituency in Maharashtra, fighting against Congress' Varsha Gaikwad.
Conclusion: Majeed Memon never represented 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks' convict Ajmal Kasab in court. The viral claim is misleading.
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