Police arrested more than 100 associates related to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in connection with the 1993 bomb blast case. Ujjal Nikam played an important role in giving punishment to actor Sanjay Dutt.
The BJP replaced current Lok Sabha MP Poonam Mahajan, daughter of former Union Minister late Pramod Mahajan, with lawyer Ujjwal Nikam for the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha seat. Interestingly after the murder of Pramod Mahajan, Ujjwal Nikam who handled the case on behalf of Mahajan family is replacing Poonam after the reports of anti-incumbency against her.
Nikam came into the limelight after handling several prominent cases like 1993 blast case, 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case against Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, 2011 triple blasts, Shakti Mills gangrape cases, the Kopardi and Ahmednagar rape and murder cases. Nikam became famous after the 1993 blast & 26/11 attack case.
‘Cooked up’ Story On Biryani For Ajmal Kasab
Ajmal Kasab,was the only terrorist captured after the 26/11 attacks,who was hanged later on during UPA-2 regime. Nikam handled the trial against 26/11 Mumbai attack accused and earlier had claimed that Kasab was fed biryani in the prison. It led to a huge backlash against the then state govrnment of Congress-NCP. But during a global counter-terrorism conference in Jaipur in 2015, Ujjwal Nikam, revealed that he fabricated this story to break the emotional support that was building around Kasab.
Sanjay Dutt’s 1993 Blast Case
In the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, when Mumbai was rocked by a chain of bomb blasts. Police arrested more than 100 associates related to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in connection with the bomb blast. Ujjal Nikam played an important role in giving punishment to actor Sanjay Dutt.
When the trial of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case was going on after proceedings of the day, Nikam used to come out of the courtroom and brief the media. Once Sanjay Dutt left the court after the proceedings were over, the media rushed to take his byte. When Nikam came out to brief the media, he found no one was there as many had gone behind Sanjay Dutt. After which Nikam warned Sanjay Dutt to step outside the court only after he left.
Nikam’s Link With Poonam Mahajan
The North-Central Mumbai constituency was represented by Poonam Mahajan, the daughter of late BJP stalwart Pramod Mahajan in 2014 and 2019. Pramod Mahajan was attacked by his brother only who later on died in hospital. When the trial was going on Ujjwal Nikam was the prosecutor from the side of Mahajan family. After being nominated from Mumbai- North central constituency, remembering his old ties with the Mahajan family, Nikam said, “ “I have known Poonamji as I represented the state during the trial of her father’s murder. I had seen how hard-working she was during the case. She has so much experience…I hope to get her assistance as I represent the constituency.”
Kopardi Rape And Murder Case (2016):
In July 2016, a 15-year-old girl was gang-raped and strangled in the village of Kopardi, in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. State wise protests, especially by the Maratha community erupted in support of the girl and there was a huge backlash against the government. Nikam opened the trial against three defendants in local court on 19 October 2016 and sessions court awarded death sentence to all 3 convicts.
Ujjwal Nikam Early Career
Ujjwal Nikam is originally from Jalgaon district of North-Maharashtra. He belongs to the highly-educated family in Jalgaon. He completed his education up to B.Sc and LLB in Jalgaon. After that, he joined the government service as a government lawyer. During his career, he played an important role in high profile cases in the country.
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