New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: Noted Supreme Court lawyer and former Union Minister Ram Jethmalani passed away in Delhi on Sunday after suffering from prolonged illness. He was 95.
Jethmalani had been suffering from months and had lost a lot of weight, according to his family members. He breathed his last at 7.45 am at his official residence in New Delhi.
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Jethmalani was born in Sikhapur of Sindh province on September 14, 1923. One of the highest-paid lawyers in the supreme court of India, he started his career as a lawyer and in Sindh before partition.
He became a member of Rajya Sabha in 1988 Jethmalani and went on to serve as the law minister and the urban development minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet. He also served as the Chairman of the Bar Council of India.
He was expelled from the BJP after he wrote a letter to party president Nitin Gadkari accusing BJP leaders of being "silent against the huge corruption" within the ruling UPA-II government.
As a lawyer, Jethmalani fought many high profile cases, including defending Rajiv Gandhi's killers in Madras High Court to AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal in the defamation case filed by Arun Jaitley.
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But one of the cases he will be remembered for is the KM Nanavati vs State of Maharashtra case in which he was the prosecutor.
He also defended Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh in the Securities scam of 1992. Jethmalani had also defended the death sentence given to Afzal Guru and represented Manu Sharma in the Jessica Lall murder case.
Many have described Jethmalani's death as a loss for the legal fraternity as he was one most respected lawyers in the country. Jethmalani is survived by his son, Mahesh Jethmalani, and a US-based daughter.