Vikram Varma is a prominent Indian advocate based in Goa who is originally from New Delhi. Vikram Varma achieved his prominence in representing highly publicized cases by the news media, mostly involving foreigners, such as the sensational Scarlett Keeling case which captured the imagination of the Indian public. The Keeling case started when some local authorities tried to cover up the death of a 15 year old British girl as a drowning accident. The case was debated in the Local Parliament and even mentioned in the national Parliament in Delhi. It was widely covered by media including BBC, The Guardian, The Times, CNN-IBN, Times of India and other national media. It has been transformed into a documentary by Channel 4[1] and a Bollywood movie.[2]
The Russian Consulate appointed Vikram Varma as their advocate in Goa as more than 30,000 Russians visit Goa, India every year. Varma is married to Meenal, a fashion designer, and the couple have a daughter and a son, Aishvarya and Amay.
Some of the highly publicized cases in Goa are:
In July 2009 in an attempt to embarrass Scarlett Keeling's mother, Fiona MacKeown, and her legal Team, email correspondence of Vikram Varma and his clients were leaked to Wikileaks. Wikileaks published an independent report headlined 'In Goa we trust: the rape and murder of British school girl Scarlett Keeling' in which Wikileaks wrote 'The autopsies showed that Scarlett had sandy water in her lungs and around 50 bruises and abrasions, suggesting that she had drowned in shallow water after a struggle'. This independent Wikileaks report headline, reinforcing what MacKeown and Varma had been asserting from Day 1, further galvanised media coverage of the case.
Vikram Varma is currently residing and holds his office in Porvorim. Forbes has interviewed Vikram because of his expertise on the Complex Land Laws in Goa.[7]
On Dec 4, 2011, the Russian Government used one of Vikram Varma's premises as a polling booth for its national elections. As this was the first time that voting facilities were provided to Russians in India outside of its Embassy, it was widely reported by the Indian media such as Times of India and DNA.[8][9]