File photo of Ujjwal Nikam
After he confessed that he cooked up a statement about terrorist Ajmal Kasab wanting biryani in jail, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam has been asked for a clarification by the Maharashtra government.
"After speaking to the Chief Minister, we will seek a clarification. What Mr Nikam has said is unfortunate," said minister Eknath Khadse today.
Of 10 Pakistani terrorists who sailed into Mumbai in 2008, Kasab alone was caught alive after 166 people were killed in the worst-ever terror attack in the country. Kasab was jailed in Mumbai for nearly four years and hanged in Pune in November 2012. As public prosecutor, Mr Nikam, 61, had declared in 2009, that Kasab, who was 21 when he was arrested, asked for biryani to be provided to him.
Last week, Mr Nikam scratched that out, declaring, "Kasab never demanded biryani and (it) was never served (to him) by the government. I concocted it just to break an emotional atmosphere which was taking shape in favour of Kasab during the trial of the case."
Mr Nikam is a private practitioner who is retained by the state for special cases, so he cannot be sacked. The controversy, could, however, lead to his removal from cases he is handling at present. Mr Nikam has handled a number of high-profile cases like the 1993 bomb blasts, the murder of BJP leader Pramod Mahajan for which his brother was arrested and the case of film producer Gulshan Kumar who was shot dead outside a temple in Mumbai in 1997.
Lawyer Abbas Kazmi, who was assigned to defend Kasab, said that Mr Nikram "not only used the media blatantly, but also misguided the court."