Badlapur Sexual Assault: High-Profile Lawyer Ujjwal Nikam Appointed Special Public Prosecutor

Lawyer Ujjwal Nikam has been appointed as the special public prosecutor in the Badlapur case involving sexual assault of two young girls in their school in Thane district of Maharashtra.

The development comes in the wake of widespread outrage over the case on Tuesday. The four-year-old kindergarten students were allegedly assaulted by a cleaning staff member, Akshay Shinde, 23, on August 12-13 in the school’s toilet when no female staff members were present.

Angry parents of the schoolchildren and local residents, including several women, gathered outside the school on Tuesday morning (August 20) and resorted to a ‘rail roko’ protest at the railway station. Thousands blocked the tracks leading to massive disruption of local train services and diversion of some long-distance trains. The police had to resort to lathicharge and detention of the protesters to clear the tracks.

The appointment of Nikam, 71, is seen as a significant step, amid the row over the recent rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata.

Nikam has handled several high-profile cases, including the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks which led to the conviction of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist. His efforts were instrumental in securing Kasab’s death sentence, which was executed in November 2012 at Yerwada Jail in Pune.

Among his other cases are the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and the 1997 murder of Bollywood producer Gulshan Kumar. He also played a crucial role in the conviction of Ravinder Singh for the 1991 Kalyan bomb blast and BJP leader Pramod Mahajan’s murder case in 2006.

Awarded the Padma Shri in 2016 for his contribution to the legal field, Nikam recently contested the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North Central on a BJP ticket, but was defeated by Congress candidate Varsha Gaikwad.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced Nikam’s appointment, emphasising the commitment to giving justice to the survivors.