The distinguished and popular Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani passed away this morning just five days before he was to turn 96. In his long life, Jethmalani fought some of the most prolific cases in the history of the country. From defending Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi's killers to Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. Interestingly, he won a case even before he became a lawyer.
Having graduated at the young age of 17, Jethmalani wasn't allowed to practise because he had not reached the required age of 21. The teenager then petitioned the court himself and an exception was made in his case. It is no wonder that he went on to become one of the most highly made lawyers at the Supreme Court. Here we take a look at some his most prolific cases.
1. Defense of Indira Gandhi's assassins - The lawyer served as a counsel for two of Gandhi's assassins, Satwant SIngh and Kehar Singh who were awarded death sentences. They were forever executed later.
2. Defense of Rajiv Gandhi's killers - Using the statement that the assassination wasn't technically a crime against India. he argued for V Sriharan and for the Court to challenged the TN government's 2014 decision to commute the sentences of seven life convicts in the case.
3. Defense of Amit Shah in Sohrabuddin case - Jethmalani defended the now Home Minister in deveral fake encounter cases, the most popular being the Sohrabuddin case.
4. Manu Sharma in the Jessica Lal cases - While this case itself was quite popular, Jethmalani shocked everyone by taking up the case of Manu Sharma who was later convicted.
5. Asaram Bapu in sexual assault case - This high profile case involving the self-styled godmen was over a complaint made by a minor girl in his ashram. The victim had alleged that Asaram had sexually assaulted her.
6. Jayalalithaa assets case - The long drawn case involving the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and the disproportionate assets case dragged on till the minister's death.
The other major cases he took up was of to defend Arvind Kejriwal in the defamation case filed by Arun Jaitley, Kanimozhi in the 2g scam, Lalu Prasad Yadav's defence in fodder scam, Shiv Sena's Krishna Desai in a murder case, Ramdev's defence on the use of force on followers, YS Jaganmohan Reddy in money laundering in his companies, Underworld don Haji Mastan and LK Advani in the Hawala scam.
He battled a lot of criticism in his life for the controversial cases he took up but the portals of the court will miss the legendary lawyer even though he would often argue just for argument's sake. His forte afterall was criminal law.
