NIA team raids woman lawyer's Sec 27 house

Chandigarh, October 18

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today raided the Sector 27 house of a woman lawyer, who has been representing gangsters, including those from the Lawrence Bishnoi, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Davinder Bamibha groups, in court.

The NIA sleuths reached lawyer Dr Shelly Sharma’s house around 6 am and questioned her for over three hours. The investigating agency seized two mobile phones of the lawyer and took away some documents.

Sources said the advocate was questioned as to how she had been getting cases of all rival gangs.

The advocate claimed the NIA officials searched her house, scrutinised various case files and also scanned her laptop. “When the officials couldn’t find anything from the house, they took away my mobile phones,” she said.

The advocate said she had been fighting cases of several gangs, including Lawrence Bishnoi, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Davinder Bambiha. “It is quite humiliating for a lawyer. I represent gangsters in court, this doesn’t mean I am a criminal,” she claimed.

Sources said the advocate was supposed to leave for Amritsar, where her case was listed for hearing, but had to cancel her travel.

“She has been dealing with cases of gangsters in Punjab and Chandigarh. To meet her clients, she has to visit them in jails,” said a source.

The NIA raid was part of searches conducted at several locations across Punjab, Haryana, UP and Chandigarh, included houses of gangsters, to probe the “nexus” between terrorists, gangsters and drug smugglers.

DBA to strike work

Chandigarh: The District Bar Association on Tuesday decided to strike work indefinitely. Sunil Toni, president, said the executive committee at a meeting passed a resolution condemning the raid. It asked the agency to give the lawyer unconditional exoneration. TNS

Has been representing gangsters in court

• Advocate Shelly Sharma has been representing gangsters from Lawrence Bishnoi, Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Davinder Bamibha groups in court
• In 2019, she got eight accused acquitted in the murder case of gangster Sukhbir Singh, alias Sukha Kahlwan
• Kahlwan was gunned down in 2015 at Phagwara while being taken back to Nabha jail in a police jeep after a court hearing in Jalandhar