Afzal Guru's family lawyers quit

Citing "unseemly controversies", ND Pancholi and Nandita Haksar Wednesday quit as the family lawyers of Afzal Guru, the parliament attack convict who was hanged in New Delhi on Feb 9.

Citing "unseemly controversies", ND Pancholi and Nandita Haksar Wednesday quit as the family lawyers of Afzal Guru, the parliament attack convict who was hanged in New Delhi on Feb 9.

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"There have arisen unseemly controversies and we do not wish to be part of these discussions," Pancholi and Haksar said in a statement. The duo were representing Guru's family members who have asked Tihar jail authorities to return them Guru's body buried inside the prison premises.

Pancholi and Haksar said they did not belong to any political party. However, they believed in engagement with the institutions and were working through them because there was no alternative, the statement said.

They said, Guru's family members had also asked them to make arrangements for their stay in Delhi and provide security.

"When the first death warrant was issued in September 2006, the family members had great difficulty in finding safe accommodation and we had made some arrangements. This time the situation is even more volatile, so we approached the Lok Sabha MP of relevant constituency and through him contacted Jammu and Kashmir House and the resident commissioner agreed to allot rooms for the family," they said.

The lawyers also said that Guru did not get a fair trial, he was a victim of prejudice and injustice built into the criminal judicial process.