Gangs now targetting criminal lawyers

Criminal lawyers, defending accused with underworld connections, have themselves now come under the scanner of rival gangs.In the recent past, there has been a spurt in the number of lawyers being attacked, threatened and their offices being ransacked.

Advocate Shahid Azmi, who was defending 26/11 terror attack accused Faheem Ansari, was gunned down at his suburban Kurla office in January 2010. The Crime Branch later arrested three persons, who were allegedly paid a contract of Rs one lakh by gangsters Bharat Nepali and Bala Shetty to kill Azmi. According to police, the gangsters wanted to eliminate Azmi as he was defending members of rival gangs.

Another lawyer Ashok Sarogi, who was defending extradited gangster Abu Salem, received a threatening letter from an alleged member of gangster Ravi Pujari on Friday, directing him to withdraw from a case failing which he would be shot dead.While Maharashtra government has assured security to the lawyers involved in high profile sensitive cases, the City Civil and Sessions Court Bar Association had last week passed a resolution directing its members who have received threats to procure arms license to protect themselves.     

"Several lawyers who have received threats from the underworld had approached the police seeking protection but nothing was done. If no one is ready to protect our fraternity then we have to do it ourselves," Bar Association general secretary Rohini Salian told PTI. However, few criminal lawyers feel mere possession of a gun or any other firearm is not going to make much difference.

 "If a lawyer uses his gun to shoot someone in retaliation, he would have to prove before the court and police that it was indeed a move made out of self-defence," criminal lawyer Wahab Khan said. He added when police gun down someone in an encounter, no one asks if it was in retaliation. However, if a civilian or a lawyer shoots someone, he would be arrested and has to prove that it was an act of self-defence.

Last week, the theft of documents pertaining to the details of witnesses in the 7/11 serial train blasts case and the 2006 Malegaon blasts case from the special public prosecutor's office raised concerns. "While the stolen papers were only photocopies of the chargesheets, which include the list of witnesses and their addresses, they could seriously compromise the safety of the witnesses in these high profile cases," a crime branch official said.

 The Crime Branch department of the city police had last year arrested three persons, who were allegedly planning to attack three criminal lawyers including Ganesh Sovani, appearing for Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.