Senior lawyer and politician Ram Jethmalani announced his retirement from legal practice at a function held by the Bar Council of India to felicitate Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Saturday.
Jethmalani, one of the most sought-after lawyers in the country, was a Rajya Sabha MP and also associated with the ruling BJP.
He has been a part of several high-profile cases, including the 2G scam case and the Jessica Lall murder case, in his career spanning 76 years.
The senior lawyer was recently in the news when he accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of using "worse abuses" against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley after the latter filed a defamation case against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor.
This came after Kejriwal sought a public fund to pay Jethmalani's fees amounting to Rs 3.86 crore.
Here are seven high-profile cases where Jethmalani appeared as counsel:
- Jethmalani had defended Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh, who were convicted for the assassination of the former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
- The 94-year-old lawyer had also appeared for V Sriharan alias Murugan, convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. He had recently said the suicide bomb attack in 1991, which caused the death of the former prime minister, was not a crime against India.
- Jethmalani also appeared for senior BJP leader LK Advani in the Hawala scam, a scandal involving politicians allegedly making payments in black money through four hawala brokers. The senior lawyer recently remarked that Advani won the case because he defended the veteran leader
- Jethmalani also defended Manu Sharma, convicted in the Jessica Lall murder case.
- He appeared for BJP president Amit Shah in several fake encounter cases.
- Jethmalani bailed out self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who was accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year old girl in his ashram in Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
- Jethmalani had defended Jayalalithaa, late chief minister of Tamil Nadu, who was ultimately convicted in a disproportionate assets case.
