Relatives of deceased in Malegaon 2008 case write to Mukul Rohatgi not to appear for Lt Colonel Purohit

The relatives of the deceased in the Malegaon 2008 bomb blast case objected to the appearance of Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi who appeared for accused Lt Colonel Purohit.

Father, mother, wife and brother of six diseased sent letter to Mukul Rohatgi to not appear for accused as earlier he appeared against him as Attorney General of India.

Pursuant to the letter, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi did not appear citing the reason, Advocate Neela informed the division bench that because of the letter, Mukul is not appearing for Colonel Purohit in this matter. The matter has been posted to 2nd February 2021.

The letter from the relatives to Rohatgi read, "I write to you with great hope that in order to prevent the miscarriage of justice, you will not appear on behalf of the accused number 9 Colonel Purohit in Criminal Writ petition 1726 of 2020 pending for hearing in the Bombay High Court."

"In the explosion of 29 September, 2008 at Malegaon all of us lost our loved sons. The Courts remain our last hope of receiving justice against the cowardly acts which not only created havoc in our lives but also claimed the lives of our loved ones," it read.

"The reason for writing this letter is as follows, You have appeared for the Union of India and the National Investigating Agency in Criminal Writ petition no 157 of 2015 on 21.09.2015. Further in 2016 while probing the bomb blast, the NIA asked the law ministry to seek your opinion in your capacity as the then-Attorney General regarding the applicability of Maharashtra Control of Orgzed Crime Act against petitioner Lt Col. Prasad Purohit and others," the letter read.

"Under these circumstances, we are of the opinion that your appearance on behalf of the accused number 9 will be in conflict of interest and will create prejudice to the whole proceedings," it read.

"In order to preserve the value of fair trial and uphold the sanctity of the position that you once held as Attorney general of India, we request you to not appear for the accused number 9," the letter added.

( With inputs from ANI )