Advocates of an Ahmedabad court on Monday decided not to appear on behalf of arrested IPS officer D G Vanjhara in the case relating to the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a fake encounter.
About 150 advocates of the Metropolitan Court wrote a letter to the Bar Association vice-president saying none of them would appear on behalf of Vanjhara as he had "troubled advocates in the past."
"Though no specific instance has been cited in the letter, the advocates said Vanjhara had troubled lawyers in the past and none would like to defend and represent him," vice-president of Metropolitan Court Bar Association Bharat Shah told PTI on Monday.
Though he did not mention any specific incident, two years ago, a team of Crime Branch, then headed by Vanjhara, had arrested one of the seniormost advocates of the sessions court for his alleged links with an absconding gangster.
Criminal lawyer H N Jhala and his junior were arrested and put behind bars for many months till they finally secured bail.
Vanjhara (DIG border range), Rajkumar Pandiyan (SP Intelligence Bureau) and Dinesh Kumar M N (SP Alwar, Rajasthan) were arrested by CID (crime) a week ago for the alleged fake encounter of Sheikh, whom they projected as a terrorist plotting to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Their police remand ends on Tuesday.