In defence

This is one lawyer-client relationship that has moved from the confines of the courtroom to the heat and dust of elections. First, lawyer Manu Barot’s arguments convinced the High Court of his client Kantilal Amrutiya’s innocence. Now, Barot is using the court order to win an election for Amrutiya.

At every opportunity—small meetings or big rallies—lawyer Manu Barot flashes the court order that acquitted his client Amrutiya, the BJP candidate from Morbi, of a murder charge. Waving the document, he says, “In this 126-page verdict, the honorable High Court has given a clean chit to Amrutiya.” He then turns a couple of pages for effect and says, “On every single page of this verdict, the court has said that there is no evidence against Kantibhai.”

Amrutiya spent the last three years in jail after the Gondal sessions court convicted him in the Prakash Raveshia murder case in 2004. On October 25, the High Court acquitted him, though the victim’s family is set to move the Supreme Court.

Jayanti Patel, the Congress candidate from Morbi, has focused his campaign on the murder charges against Amrutiya. But every time Patel brings up the charges, Barot’s defence only gets shriller.