Devil’s Advocate continues ………….

It had been barely a year since I had got to know this extraordinary lawyer. In that brief period of time, he had worked diligently for us, saved our prestige and procured a landmark judgment in our favour. All this he had achieved in the face of hostile public opinion. He had left an indelible impression on me with his legal acumen, humility and friendship. It was not easy to come to terms with what had just happened.

Days later, I learnt of the sequence of events that had led to the tragic killing of Gurcharan Singh. The advocate was representing the state against Brij Mohan Sharma, a notorious gangster who operated in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, in a case of murder. Gurcharan Singh, as always, was brilliant in his arguments against the accused.

Brij Mohan realized that if the lawyer continued with his prosecution, his conviction was certain. He shared his fears with his friend Manjeet Singh, another inveterate criminal from Agra. Together, after a court hearing, they threatened the lawyer with dire consequences if he did not give up the case. Gurcharan Singh told them, ‘If I were to back off from a case because of threats from goons like you, I better leave practising law.’

The goons then called up his wife and warned her that if her husband did not relent he would be done away with. When she brought the conversation to her husband’s attention, he brushed her off summarily. The accused, finding the lawyer unyielding, decided to silence him once and for all.

On that fateful evening, at about 8.45 p.m., Gurcharan Singh was at his residential office with his associate Krishna Tyagi. He was dictating a brief to his stenographer, J.S. Oberoi, for a client, who was also present. That was when he spotted a young boy peeping into his office through the glass door. He waved the boy in.

To be Continued ………….