A lawyer, appearing for arrested Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal, has complained to the police that underworld don Ravi Pujari is threatening him and he should stop fighting his case.
Advocate M S Khan had written a letter to the Delhi Police Commissioner on January 17 stating that he had received threat calls and SMSes allegedly from Pujari who had asked him not to represent Bhatkal.
The advocate had also written a letter to Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court urging him to direct appropriate action on the issue.
Amid reports that Delhi Police was not acting on his complaint sent six days back, an e-mail was received today by Khan that Commissioner of Police B S Bassi has tasked the Special Cell of Delhi Police to look into his complaint.
"Your E-mail has been acknowledged by Commissioner of Police, Delhi, and the same has been referred to the Deputy Commissioner of Police/Spl. Cell for further necessary action ...," the e-mail received by Khan said.
"Defending an accused of any nature of crime is not a sin, rather it is a right available to the lawyer as well as the accused and such kind of activities are not only discouraging but the same also amount to direct interference in the process of administration of justice. "I am just exercising my lawful profession," Khan said in a letter sent to the Chief Justice.
Khan, who is also defending top Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT) bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda and extradited gangster Abu Salem, said he had received a call on January 16 from a person who identified himself as Ravi Pujari.
Khan said that after the call, he received an SMS allegedly from Pujari in which the gangster threatened that he would kill one of his family members.
On January 17, the advocate received another SMS in which he was threatened allegedly by Pujari to withdraw from Bhatkal's case.
"I have received these calls from international numbers and the caller identified himself as don Ravi Pujari. I have written letters to the Chief Justice and Police commissioner but till date, I have not received any response. There is an apprehension that some untoward incident might take place with me or my family," Khan told PTI.
30-year-old Bhatkal was arrested by the NIA from the Indo-Nepal border on the night of August 28 last year and he is alleged to be involved in a string of terror attacks in Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad and other parts of India.
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