Actor ‘s film Prahaar is now in theatres. Focusing on senior lawyer and Padma Shri awardee Ujjwal Nikam’s popular trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the film is helmed by Avinash Arun. The Maddock Films’ production, however, isn’t a biopic on Nikam.
In the film, Rajkummar Rao essays the role of . It is a courtroom drama, tracing the Bombay terror attacks and the challenges in the legal battle faced by the advocate who secured the sentencing of Kasab.
Besides the high-profile 2008 Mumbai terror attacks trial, Ujjwal Nikam is also known for handling many more prominent and significant cases. Check it out:
The murder of , the owner of the T-Series Music label and a music producer, sent shockwaves in the country. Kumar was shot dead in Mumbai on August 12, 1997, during his visit to the Jiteshwar Mahadev Temple.
In his murder trial, Nikam served as the Special Public Prosecutor. The murder was related to organised crime, highlighting the connection between the film and music industry and the underworld of Mumbai in the 90s.
Nikam was the special public prosecutor in the high-profile Mumbai twin rape cases, involving a photojournalist and a telephone operator. Nikam secured the death penalty for three accused as repeat offenders following the sentencing in the telephone operator gang-rape case.
In the 1993 Bombay bomb blast case, Ujjwal Nikam represented the Maharashtra government. One of the biggest terror cases in India, on March 12, 1993, a series of explosions shook the city, causing 257 deaths and over 1,400 injuries, as per reports.
During the trial, Nikam prosecuted actor under the Arms Act for illegally keeping weapons that were retrieved from a weapon-laden vehicle brought by Abu Salem.
Ujjwal Nikam led the prosecution in the trial for the twin bomb blasts at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar in August 2003, leaving over 50 dead and more than 200 injured.
Nikam reportedly called it the “rarest of the rare” case as for the first time a husband and wife were convicted and sentenced to death together in the terror blasts alongside one more accused.
Ujjwal Nikam was the Special Public Prosecutor in the 2006 Khairlanji massacre case. It stemmed from a Dalit family who was lynched and murdered in Khairlanji village of Maharashtra.
The incident gained nationwide attention and sparked debate over caste violence in India. In the end, Nikam secured death sentence for six convicts to death while two others were given life imprisonment. Later, the death sentences were commuted.
