BJP candidate Ujjwal Nikam's resignation accepted, to file nomination on Friday

BJP candidate Ujjwal Nikam’s resignation accepted, to file nomination on Friday

The way for Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam to file his nomination for the Lok Sabha polls got clear on Thursday after the Maharashtra government accepted his resignation from the post.

Ujjwal Nikam, who currently has as many as 29 cases pending with him, can now go ahead and file his nomination papers as a BJP candidate from the Mumbai North Central Parliamentary constituency on Friday.

The BJP had announced his name as its candidate from the Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha constituency last Saturday.Â

Soon after the announcement, Nikam had moved an application seeking that his resignation be accepted.

Over the course of his career, Ujjwal Nikam has represented Maharashtra as a special public prosecutor in several high profile cases.

The BJP Mumbai North Central candidate hails from Maharashtra’s Jalgaon, and he started practicing as a lawyer in 1979.

Nikam is best remembered for the 26/11 terror attack trial in which the lone arrested terrorist, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was sentenced to death. Nikam’s handling of the trial as a public prosecutor made him a household name across the country.

But Nikam first shot to fame when he was appointed as a special public prosecutor in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case.Â

Later, Nikam was appointed as a special public prosecutor in cases where there was a public outcry demanding justice for victims, like in the Shakti Mills gangrape case, the Kopardi and Ahmednagar rape and murder cases, among others.Â

Ujjwal Nikam built a reputation for demanding the strictest punishment for the accused in most cases, which is said to have made many families of victims of brutal crimes demand his appointment as a prosecutor in their cases.

Before his resignation, Nikam was handling the case against alleged LeT operative Sayyed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal in connection with the 26/11 terror attack case, Kurar quadruple killings of 2011, and the murder of actor Laila Khan and her family. The trial is almost concluded.

The Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha constituency is scheduled to go to polls during the fifth phase on May 20, with the results to be announced on June 4.

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