Fact-Check: Former MP Majeed Memon Was Not a Defense Lawyer for 26/11 Convict Ajmal Kasab in Court

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Co Published By: LokmatTimes.com

A viral post suggests that NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar nominated Majeed Memon, who represented 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab, as a Rajya Sabha MP. The post contrasts this with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominating Ujjwal Nikam, the case's special public prosecutor, as a candidate for the Mumbai North Central constituency in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections. This article aims to fact-check the validity of this claim.

Fact: 

The claim is misleading.While Kasab was represented by several lawyers, the now All India Trinamool Congress  leader Majeed Memon was not one of them. Newschecker found that Memon was in fact a RajyaSabha MP from NCP from 2014 to 2020, however he later quit the party in 2022 and joined the TMC the same year. It is to be noted that during Memon’s tenure as a Rajya Sabha MP representing the NCP, the party had not yet split into two separate factions.

Following this, we did a keyword search for “Majeed Memon” and “Kasab” on Google, but did not find any credible reports suggesting that he had represented the terrorist in court. Infact, a PTI report, dated December 6, 2008, quoted Majeed Memon as saying that “There are certain ethical restraints which may stop a conscientious lawyer from defending certain accused persons. When a lawyer is aware that the accused was in fact caught red handed committing an extremely serious offence, there is no question of us appearing in this case.”

Justifying the reason behind his decision not to appear for Ajmal Kasab, Memon wrote in TimesofIndia on December 21, 2008, “As far as I am concerned, I will not defend him in court because his case is indefensible. We have all seen him committing the crime. His guilt is beyond doubt.On further probe newschecker found that Kasab was initially represented by lawyer AbbasKazmi and then later advocate KPPawar but was eventually sentenced to death by the trial court.

Following his death sentence, Kasab approached the Bombay HC. Lawyers Amin Solkar and Farhana Shah were appointed for Kasab by the Bombay High Court, an NDTV article published on June 8, 2010 reported. The Bombay court upheld Kasab’s death sentence in 2011. Kasab further filed a plea with the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court verdict. The apex court had then appointed senior advocate Raju Ramachandran as its amicus curiae to assist in the hearing of the case. Ramachandran and his assistant Gaurav Agarwal were also in news for refusing to accept remuneration for their services in the case. In August 2012, the SC upheld the death penalty for Kasab, thereby ending the trial.

Thus, Newschecker found out that Majeed Memon never argued for Ajmal Kasab during any stage of the trial. However, UjjwalNikam who is the BJP’s candidate from the Mumbai North Central constituency for the 2024 Lok Sabha Polls did indeed argue in favour of the death sentence for Kasab in the 26/11 Mumbai terror case.We could thus conclude that the viral claim is partly false. 

This story was originally published by Newschecker  and republished by LokmatTimes.com  as part of the Shakti Collective.