•  •  Dark Mode

Your Interests & Preferences

I am a...

law firm lawyer
in-house company lawyer
litigation lawyer
law student
aspiring student
other

Website Look & Feel

 •  •  Dark Mode
Blog Layout

Save preferences

RamJet talks on bad reporting, sexual potency and money-making from Asaram Bapu mandate

Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani talked to the Wall Street Journal in typically freewheeling and candid manner about his representation of godman Asaram Bapu, who was accused of sexual assault on a teenager. Excerpts:

RamJet on reports that the alleged victim had a condition that attracted men towards her: “That’s misreporting by the press.  I have never said it, I don’t know what this was saying, the reporters there don’t understand English.”

RamJet, aged 90 and famously husband to two wives, on Bapu’s alleged (im)potency: “Frankly I have not heard of a potency test at this time, how do you test a person’s potency? The only way to test his potency is to expose him to some member of the opposite gender. But there’s no reason to think that a man of 74 is totally impotent.”

On his practice, revealing that “of course, naturally” Bapu paid him well: “I am too busy in my work, I’m not merely a lawyer, I’m a member of Parliament, I’m a teacher of law, above all I’m also running my newspaper. I’m the chairman of board of The Sunday Guardian. My practice is of a different kind from other lawyers. I make tons of money at the bar, but I do it from 10% of my clients. Mr. Bapu is in the 10%.”

On unpopular cases: “I have got a rule of professional conduct that no lawyer should choose to defend a client on the ground that other people believe him to be innocent, or that you don’t believe him to be innocent, or that the defense will bring you unpopularity.”

Click to show 1 comment
at your own risk
(alt+c)
By reading the comments you agree that they are the (often anonymous) personal views and opinions of readers, which may be biased and unreliable, and for which Legally India therefore has no liability. If you believe a comment is inappropriate, please click 'Report to LI' below the comment and we will review it as soon as practicable.