Ujjwal Nikam (born 30 March 1953) is an Indian special public prosecutor who has worked on prominent murder and terrorism cases. He helped prosecute suspects in the
1993 Bombay bombings, the
Gulshan Kumar murder case, the
Pramod Mahajan murder case, and the
2008 Mumbai attacks. He was also the special public prosecutor in the
2013 Mumbai gang rape case,
2016 Kopardi rape and murder case. Ujjwal Nikam argued on behalf of the state during the 26/11 Mumbai attack trial.
Nikam was awarded the
Padma Shri by the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...
in 2016.
He has been given a security detail with a classification of
Z+, the second highest level of security in India.
He was fielded by the
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...
from
Mumbai North Central candidate during the
2024 Indian general election, he lost by a margin of 16,514 votes (1.81%).
Early life and education
Nikam was born in
Jalgaon,
Maharashtra
Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...
, to
Marathi parents. His father, Deoraoji Nikam, was a judge and
barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...
, and his mother was a homemaker.
After receiving his
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
degree, he earned a law degree from the K.C.E. Society's
S. S. Maniyar Law College in Jalgaon. His son, Aniket, is also a criminal lawyer in High Court Mumbai.
Career
Nikam began his career as a district prosecutor in
Jalgaon and worked his way up to state and national trials. In a 30-year career, he has secured 628 life imprisonments and 37 death penalties.
Rape and murder cases
*Murder of
Gulshan Kumar (1997): Kumar, a
Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...
film producer, was shot on 12 August 1997 outside a temple in
Andheri. Nineteen people were charged in the case, but all except one were acquitted in 2002.
*Marine Drive rape case (2005): Police constable Sunil More was convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl in a police station on
Marine Drive in Mumbai and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
*
Khairlanji massacre (2006): A
Dalit family was beaten and murdered in
Khairlanji, a small village in Maharashtra, on 29 September 2006 by a mob from the more powerful
Kunbi caste. On 15 September 2008, six people were sentenced to death and two others given life imprisonment in the killings. The death sentences were later commuted to life in prison.
*Murder of
Pramod Mahajan (2006): Mahajan, a leader of the
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...
, was shot by his younger brother, Pravin Mahajan, after a family dispute on 22 April 2006. Pravin was sentenced to life in prison in December 2007.
*
Shakti Mills gang rape (2013): In a verdict on 4 April 2014, three repeat offenders were sentenced to death for gang-raping a photojournalist at the Shakti Mills compound in Mumbai, and a fourth received a life term.
*Murder of Pallavi Purkayastha (2013): Purkayastha, a 25-year-old woman living in
Wadala, was fatally stabbed by a watchman in her building, Sajjad Moghul, after she resisted his attempts to rape her. Moghul was sentenced to life in prison in July 2014.
*Murder of Preeti Rathi (2013): Ankur Panwar was convicted and sentenced to death in September 2016 for killing Rathi, a 23-year-old woman, with acid on 2 May 2013 after she rejected his marriage proposal.
*
Kopardi rape and murder case (2016): In July 2016, a 15-year-old girl was gang-raped and strangled in the village of Kopardi, in the
Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Nikam opened the trial against three defendants in local court on 19 October 2016. Sessions court awards death sentence to all 3 convicts.
*
Mohsin Shaikh's murder case (2014): On 2 June 2014, Mohsin Shaikh, an IT professional working as an IT manager in a private textile firm, was attacked and killed allegedly by the Hindu Rashtra Sena while he was returning from a prayer at Unnati Nagar. Shaikh's family sought Nikam's appointment as the
public prosecutor in a letter to the
Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis. Subsequently, he was made the special public prosecutor in the case by the
Government of Maharashtra.
Terrorism cases
* 1991 Kalyan bombing: Ravinder Singh was convicted of bombing a railway station in
Kalyan on 8 November 1991, killing 12 people.
*
1993 Bombay bombings: A special court was set up in 2000 under the
Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...
to try suspects in the series of 13 explosions that took place in Bombay (now Mumbai) on 12 March 1993, killing 257 people in what was then India's worst terrorist attack. The trial lasted almost 14 years, and dozens of people were convicted.
*
2003 Gateway of India bombing: Two car bombs went off in Mumbai on 25 August 2003, one at a jewelry market and the other at the
Gateway of India, a popular tourist attraction. Three men were convicted and sentenced to death in August 2009.
*
2008 Mumbai attacks: The three-day siege of Mumbai in November 2008—which targeted luxury hotels, a Jewish center, and other sites—left more than 160 people dead.
Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker captured alive by the police, was sentenced to death on 6 May 2010 and hanged on 21 November 2012.
In December 2010, Nikam represented the Government of India at a worldwide convention on terrorism held at the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
in New York.
In popular culture
In 2017, Nikam's life story was made into a film, ''
Aadesh – Power of Law''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nikam, Ujjwal
Living people
People from Jalgaon
Marathi people
20th-century Indian lawyers
Recipients of the Padma Shri in public affairs
Indian prosecutors
Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Maharashtra
1953 births