Ujjwal Nikam is an Indian special public prosecutor who has worked on prominent murder and terrorism cases. He helped prosecute suspects in the
1993 Bombay bombings, the
Gulshan Kumar
Gulshan Kumar Dua (5 May 1951 12 August 1997), was an Indian businessman, film and music producer who was the founder of the Super Cassettes Industries Limited (T-Series) music label in the Bollywood industry. He founded T-Series in the 1980s ...
murder case, the
Pramod Mahajan
Pramod Vyankatesh Mahajan (30 October 1949 – 3 May 2006) was an Indian politician from Maharashtra. A second-generation leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he belonged to a group of relatively young " technocratic" leaders. At the time ...
murder case, and the
2008 Mumbai attacks. He was also the special public prosecutor in the
2013 Mumbai gang rape case,
2016 Kopardi rape and murder case
Sixteen or 16 may refer to:
*16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17
*one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016
Films
* ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film
* ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film d ...
. Ujjwal Nikam argued on behalf of the state during the 26/11 Mumbai attack trial.
Nikam was awarded the
Padma Shri
Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...
by the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...
in 2016.
He has been given a security detail with a classification of
Z+, the second highest level of security in India.
Early life and education
Nikam was born in
Jalgaon
Jalgaon () is a city in Maharashtra, India. The city is located in North Maharashtra, and serves as the administrative headquarters of its namesake district, the Jalgaon district. Jalgaon is colloquially known as the “''Banana City of Indi ...
,
Maharashtra, to
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
parents. His father, Deoraoji Nikam, was a judge and
barrister, and his mother was a homemaker.
After receiving his
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
degree, he earned a law degree from the K.C.E. Society's
S. S. Maniyar Law College in Jalgaon. His son, Aniket, is also a criminal lawyer in High Court Mumbai.
Career
Nikam began his career as a district prosecutor in
Jalgaon
Jalgaon () is a city in Maharashtra, India. The city is located in North Maharashtra, and serves as the administrative headquarters of its namesake district, the Jalgaon district. Jalgaon is colloquially known as the “''Banana City of Indi ...
and worked his way up to state and national trials. In a 30-year career, he has secured 628 life imprisonments and 37 death penalties.
Rape and murder cases
*Murder of
Gulshan Kumar
Gulshan Kumar Dua (5 May 1951 12 August 1997), was an Indian businessman, film and music producer who was the founder of the Super Cassettes Industries Limited (T-Series) music label in the Bollywood industry. He founded T-Series in the 1980s ...
(1997): Kumar, a
Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
film producer, was shot on 12 August 1997 outside a temple in
Andheri
Andheri ( n̪d̪ʱeɾiː is a locality in the western part of the city of Mumbai in India. Udayanagari, the name of a hill near the Mahakali caves, inspired the name Andheri. On the former islet of Versova, also known as Vasave, there was ano ...
. Nineteen people were charged in the case, but all except one were acquitted in 2002.
*Marine Drive rape case (2005): Police constable Sunil More was convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl in a police station on
Marine Drive Marine Drive may refer to:
Roads Bangladesh
* Cox Bazar-Tekhnaf Marine Drive, world's longest marine drive road.
Canada
*Marine Drive (Nova Scotia), a scenic route in Nova Scotia
*Marine Drive (Greater Vancouver), a number of roadways in Metropo ...
in Mumbai and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
*
Khairlanji massacre
The Kherlanji massacre (or Khairlanji massacre) refers to the murders of four Scheduled Caste citizens by villagers of Khairlanji on 29 September 2006. The killings took place in a small village in India named Kherlanji, located in the Bhanda ...
(2006): A
Dalit
Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...
family was beaten and murdered in
Khairlanji, a small village in Maharashtra, on 29 September 2006 by a mob from the more powerful
Kunbi
Kunbi (alternatively Kanbi , Kurmi ) is a generic term applied to caste system, castes of traditional farmers in Western India. These include the Dhonoje, Ghatole, Hindre, Jadav, Jhare, Khaire, Lewa (Leva Patil), Lonare and Tirole communities ...
caste. On 15 September 2008, six people were sentenced to death and two others given life imprisonment in the killings. The death sentences were later commuted to life in prison.
*Murder of
Pramod Mahajan
Pramod Vyankatesh Mahajan (30 October 1949 – 3 May 2006) was an Indian politician from Maharashtra. A second-generation leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he belonged to a group of relatively young " technocratic" leaders. At the time ...
(2006): Mahajan, a leader of the
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...
, was shot by his younger brother, Pravin Mahajan, after a family dispute on 22 April 2006. Pravin was sentenced to life in prison in December 2007.
*
Mumbai gang rape (2013): In a verdict on 4 April 2014, three repeat offenders were sentenced to death for gang-raping a photojournalist at the Shakti Mills compound in Mumbai, and a fourth received a life term.
*Murder of Pallavi Purkayastha (2013): Purkayastha, a 25-year-old woman living in
Wadala
Wadala (also spelled Vadala, formerly spelt Wuddala, əɖaːɭa is a locality in Mumbai. Wadala Road is a station on the Harbour Line of Mumbai's railway network.
Overview
Wadala has several schools and some renowned institutions like ...
, was fatally stabbed by a watchman in her building, Sajjad Moghul, after she resisted his attempts to rape her. Moghul was sentenced to life in prison in July 2014.
*Murder of Preeti Rathi (2013): Ankur Panwar was convicted and sentenced to death in September 2016 for killing Rathi, a 23-year-old woman, with acid on 2 May 2013 after she rejected his marriage proposal.
*Kopardi rape and murder case (2016): In July 2016, a 15-year-old girl was gang-raped and strangled in the village of Kopardi, in the
Ahmednagar district
Ahmednagar district (Marathi pronunciation: ɦ(ə)məd̪nəɡəɾ is the largest district of Maharashtra state in western India. The historical Ahmednagar city is the headquarters of the district. Ahmednagar and Sangamner are largest cities in ...
of Maharashtra. Nikam opened the trial against three defendants in local court on 19 October 2016. Sessions court awards death sentence to all 3 convicts.
*
Mohsin Shaikh's murder case (2014): On 2 June 2014, Mohsin Shaikh, an IT professional working as an IT manager in a private textile firm, was attacked and killed allegedly by the Hindu Rashtra Sena while he was returning from a prayer at Unnati Nagar. Shaikh's family sought Nikam's appointment as the
public prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...
in a letter to the
Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis
Devendra Gangadharrao Fadnavis (Marathi pronunciation: ेवेंद्र फडणवीस born 22 July 1970) is an Indian politician serving as the 9th and current Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra since 30 June 2022. He served as ...
. Subsequently, he was made the special public prosecutor in the case by the
Government of Maharashtra.
Terrorism cases
* 1991 Kalyan bombing: Ravinder Singh was convicted of bombing a railway station in
Kalyan
Kalyan (Pronunciation: əljaːɳ is a city on the banks of Ulhas River in Thane district of Maharashtra state in Konkan division. It is governed by Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation. Kalyan is a subdivision (Taluka) of Thane district ...
on 8 November 1991, killing 12 people.
*
1993 Bombay bombings: A special court was set up in 2000 under the
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, commonly known as TADA, was an Indian anti-terrorism law which was in force between 1985 and 1995 (modified in 1987) under the background of the Punjab insurgency and was applied to whole of ...
to try suspects in the series of 13 explosions that took place in Bombay (now Mumbai) on 12 March 1993, killing 257 people in what was then India's worst terrorist attack. The trial lasted almost 14 years, and dozens of people were convicted.
*
2003 Gateway of India bombing: Two car bombs went off in Mumbai on 25 August 2003, one at a jewelry market and the other at the
Gateway of India, a popular tourist attraction. Three men were convicted and sentenced to death in August 2009.
*
2008 Mumbai attacks: The three-day siege of Mumbai in November 2008—which targeted luxury hotels, a Jewish center, and other sites—left more than 160 people dead.
Ajmal Kasab
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab (13 July 1987 – 21 November 2012) was a Pakistani terrorist and a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba Islamist fighter organization, through which he took part in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks in Maharashtr ...
, the only attacker captured alive by the police, was sentenced to death on 6 May 2010 and hanged on 21 November 2012.
In December 2010, Nikam represented the Government of India at a worldwide convention on terrorism held at the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
in New York.
In popular culture
In 2017, Nikam's life story was made into a film, ''
Aadesh - Power of Law''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nikam, Ujjwal
Living people
People from Jalgaon
Marathi people
20th-century Indian lawyers
Recipients of the Padma Shri in public affairs
Indian prosecutors
Year of birth missing (living people)