Did Ex MP Majeed Memon Defend 26/11 Terror Attack Convict. A Fact Check

While the BJP gave ticket to Ujjwal Nikam who argued against 26/11 Mumbai terror attack convict Ajmal Kasab, Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) gave Rajya Sabha ticket to Majeed Memon, a lawyer who defended the terrorist in court.

The post can be seen here.

Fact

We found that Memon was in fact a Rajya Sabha 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 Times Of India 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."

However, we found that he did appear for many accused in the 1993 Bombay serial blast case.

On further probe we found that Kasab was initially represented by lawyer Abbas Kazmi and then later advocate KP Pawar 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 top 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 Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for Kasab, thereby ending the trial.

Thus, we find that Majeed Memon never argued for Ajmal Kasab during any stage of the trial.

However, Ujjwal Nikam 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. While BJP's Lok Sabha Candidate Ujjwal Nikam did argue in favour of death penalty to terrorist Kasab, there is no evidence to show that former NCP leader Memon represented him in any stage of the trial. 

Result: Partly False

(This story was originally published by NewsChecker, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective.)