Veteran criminal lawyer and former law minister Ram Jethmalani died yesterday morning at his residence at the age of 96.
He was cremated at the Lodhi Road crematorium in the evening.
Jethmalani was under treatment for age-related problems. A full-time nurse was there to take care of him at his 2, Akbar Road residence.
His health deteriorated over the last two weeks. He was bed-ridden for a week and had lost a lot of weight, sources close to the family told IANS.
He was famously known as the doyen of criminal law in the country. His tryst with the subject started at the young age of 18 and he practised it for nearly 60 years.
Politicians and senior lawyers were among those who visited Jethmalani’s residence.
They included Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and senior BJP leader Subraminan Swamy.
Marxist party leader Sitaram Yechury, Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders Manoj Jha and Premchandra Gupta, former judge Kurian Joseph, senior advocates Gopal Subramanium, Soli Sorabji and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also paid their last respect to Jethmalani.
He is survived by his son Mahesh Jethmalani and his US-based daughter. His other daughter died earlier.
Jethmalini had also served as the minister of Urban Development in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government. In 2010, he was elected as president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
Born on September 14, 1923 in Sindh province of Pakistan, Jethmalani completed his master’s in law from the S C Shahani Law College in Karachi.
He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977. He took charge as the minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs in October 1999 until July 2000 in the Vajpayee government.
A noted criminal lawyer, Jethmalani has been part of legendary cases including the famous multi-crore 2G allocation case.
He had appeared for Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh, convicted for the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi; Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convict V Sriharan alias Murugan; Harshad Mehta in the stock market scam; underworld don Haji Mastan in smuggling cases; and had argued for senior BJP leader L K  Advani in the hawala case.
Jethmalani has also written various books including the Conflict of Laws, Justice: Soviet Style and Big Egos and Small Men.
Specialist in criminal and constitutional law, he was also a part-time professor in Government Law College, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Wayne State University in the US.
He also was made chairman of the Bar Council of India in 1970 and a member of International Bar Association in 1966.