Mumbai: Maharashtra government has appointed
prominent criminal lawyer Ujjwal Nikam as a special public
prosecutor in the case of murder of lawyer Shahid Azmi who
had represented Faheem Ansari in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack
case.
A notification in this regard was issued by the state
government on July 6, a police official said today.
Since Azmi was an officer of the court and the offence
was serious, the crime branch had requested the government to
appoint a special public prosecutor to conduct the trial, the
official said.
Azmi was gunned down by members of Bharat Nepali gang in
his office on February 11 at suburban Kurla.
Police arrested three contract killers allegedly hired by
gangster Bharat Nepali to kill Azmi, investigating officer
Ramesh Mahale said.
The trio - Devendra Babu Jagtap alias JD (28), Pintoo
Deoram Dagale (25) and Vinod Yashwant Vichare (32) - were
apprehended from suburban Mulund a month after the murder.
Azmi was killed on the instructions of Nepali and his
associate Vijay alias Baba Shetty who had paid Rs one lakh
contract money to the killers, according to the chargesheet
filed by the police in May this year.
-PTI
First Published: Saturday, July 10, 2010, 00:31