Court gives accused a last chance to appoint lawyer

PUNE: The court of principal district and sessions judge Anant Badar on Monday gave Vishal Hindurao Kadam - one of the suspects in the gang rape and murder of software engineer Nayana Pujari - a final chance to appoint a lawyer of his choice before the next hearing on July 4.
Defence lawyers Biju Aloor and Jaymika Jahagirdhar, who had earlier represented Kadam, had withdrawn their 'vakalatnama' during the last hearing.
Badar had granted Kadam time to appoint a new lawyer by Monday. However, when the case came up for hearing, Kadam expressed his inability to appoint a lawyer, as he was yet to consult his family members.
Badar made it clear that if Kadam failed to appoint a lawyer of his choice, he (Badar) will engage the services of a lawyer at the expense of the state government from the panel of the Pune district legal services authority.
Special public prosecutor Harshad Nimbalkar was also of the view that Kadam be given one more opportunity to engage a lawyer of his choice.
Badar has deferred the hearing till July 4.
Pujari, an employee of Synechron, a software firm located at Kharadi, was found murdered at Rajgurunagar in Khed, about 50 km from here, on October 8, 2009. Her body was recovered from the Zarewadi forest area with her head and face smashed with stones.
The Khed police had registered a case against unknown persons, but had later transferred the case to the Yerawada police, as Pujari had gone missing from Kharadi, which comes under Yerawada.
The suspects arrested are Yogesh Raut (24), Rajesh Chaudhary (23) and Mahesh Thakur (24), all from Khed, and Vishal Kadam (26) of Satara.