Pune, Jun 30 A day after the family of Siya Goyal, a co-accused in the alleged murder of Pune realtor Ketan Agarwal, denied appointing an advocate as her defence counsel, the latter on Tuesday served a Rs 10 crore defamation notice on her brother, Sahil Goyal.
For the past few days, lawyer Aashutosh Srivastav had been claiming to represent Siya and had given interviews to news channels as her legal counsel. However, Siya and her family denied his claim before the Vadgaon Maval court on Monday and engaged advocate Vipul Dushing to represent her.
After that, Srivastav sent a defamation notice to Siya's brother Sahil for "misleading" people, and sought his apology.
"We have sent a Rs 10 crore defamation notice to Sahil Goyal. We heard a statement from him in which he made completely false allegations, lied and attempted to mislead the public," Srivastav said.
"As far as the accused, Siya Goyal, is concerned, she has signed and authorised all necessary legal documents in the prescribed manner. Those documents, including the 'vakalatnama', have already been filed before the court. She has also authorised us to represent her before the high court, and we will continue to oversee those proceedings," he said.
He said he had no interaction whatsoever with Sahil Goyal.
"We have never spoken to him, had no communication with him on any subject, and exchanged no emails. Therefore, a statement of this nature is highly irresponsible, defamatory, and amounts to a direct attack on the legal fraternity," he said.
Srivastav further said that Siya Goyal, being an adult, has every legal right to appoint a lawyer of her choice.
"Even if she wishes to change her counsel at any stage, there is a prescribed legal procedure for doing so, which requires a No Objection Certificate (NOC). Sahil Goyal must apologise for his statement because we do not represent him, and he has absolutely no authority to make false statements," he added.
Confusion prevailed in the courtroom on Monday after both advocate Srivastav and advocate Dushing appeared claiming to represent Siya.
After the prosecution concluded its arguments seeking an extension of the police custody of Siya and co-accused Chetan Chaudhary, advocate Srivastav addressed the court on Siya's behalf before Judicial Magistrate (First Class) A M Vibhute. He was followed by advocate Dushing, who also argued for Siya.
Just before the court reserved its order after hearing all parties, Siya, who was sitting in the dock, sought permission to address the court. After the magistrate allowed her to speak, she stood up and stated that advocate Dushing was her counsel.
Siya Goyal and her lover Chetan Chaudhary are accused of murdering Pune-based realtor Ketan Agarwal (25), by pushing him off a cliff from the Lohagad Fort in Pune district on June 18. Siya and Ketan were set to marry in November this year, but she reportedly did not want to go ahead with the marriage.
