Ram Jethmalani
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Ram Jethmalani (born September 14, 1923) is an Indian politician and a famous and controversial criminal lawyer.
He was born at Shikharpur in Sind (now in Pakistan), in 1923.
Jethmalani is considered a maverick, and has many distinctions to his credit. He started life very early, and after being given a triple-promotion in school, and after completing his LL.B. at the age of 17, he was too young to join the Bar. But, after persuading the Chief Justice of Sind to pass a special resolution to relax the rules, he entered the profession with a vengeance.
He married Shrimati Ratna Jethmalani in 1947, and Durga, when he moved to Bombay, after partition. They had already married before independence, so in a manner, it was just a ceremony to renew their vows. There was a law, at that point of time, in the Presidency of Bombay, disallowing bigamy, and so he married his second wife in Delhi, when they traveled by road. He has 2 sons and 2 daughters. Two of his children, Mahesh Jethmalani and Rani Jethmalani are also well known lawyers.
He has been a member of parliament consecutively since 1987.
In 2004, he contested against Prime Minister of India Atal Behari Vajpayee as an independent candidate from Lucknow with the support of Indian National Congress and lost.
Ram Jethmalani is a well known face amongst the legal community in India. Even though he has been known as only a criminal lawyer, he has appeared in some of the most high profile case, and fought every kind of case. He has taken-up unpopular defense cases such as defending the killers of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, people involved in market scams (Harshad mehta and Ketan Parekh), and a host of gangsters, and smugglers. Currently, he has been in the news for taking up the defense of Manu Sharma, prime accused in the Jessica Lall murder case. However, he failed to get Manu Sharma free. http://www.indianexpress.com/story/18891.html
His in-depth knowledge of criminal law and his sharp cross-examination skills are well-known. He has a penchant for making startling (and often unfounded) public revelations as was evident during his defence of Harshad Mehta. Jethmalani went to make much-publicized claim that the then Prime Minister took a vast sum as bribe from Harshad, a claim which was soon debunked by some in the media much to his embarrassment.
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