The Additional District and Sessions Judge who is hearing Junaid Khan lynching case has said that a senior government lawyer was helping accused and sought an action.

Seventeen-year-old Junaid was stabbed to death when he, along with his brothers, was returning home to Khandwali village after shopping for Eid in Delhi on June 22.

YS Rathore, in an interim order on October 25 said that Additional Advocate General Naveen Kaushik was assisting the counsel of the main accused, Naresh Kumar, in cross-examination of prosecution witnesses, reported Indian Express.

Citing court record, the report says that the judge said Kaushik was ‘suggesting questions to be put to the witnesses’ at two hearings.

He also added that in case Naveen Kaushik appears along with the defence counsel, it will create a feeling of insecurity amongst the victim party. Kaushik’s act amounts to professional misconduct and is against legal ethics, the judge said.

However, Kaushik told the daily that he has no connection with the case and was there as counsel appearing for one of the accused is known to him.

“It is a wrong impression. I was giving him the provisions of law regarding Hindi language, said Kaushik when asked about the judge specifically mentioning that he was suggesting questions to the defence counsel

He added that it was relevant to court proceedings since the evidence was being recorded and there is no provision for translation of evidence in English. It can only be translated when both the parties agree to it.”

The Junaid case is being tried as ‘State of Haryana Vs Naresh Kumar’.

The accused, Naresh Kumar has ‘confessed’ to having stabbed the victim but insisted that the murder was not related to the beef issue.

Naresh Kumar, a resident of Palwal in Haryana, was working as a security guard in a Delhi firm.

The fight between the victim and his brothers and the accused in the train started at Okhla railway station in Delhi while the stabbing took place at a station Ballabgarh onwards.

Junaid was stabbed to death while his brothers, Hashim and Sakir, were injured by a mob which also allegedly hurled communal slurs against them.

His brothers had claimed the attackers had taunted and repeatedly called them ‘anti-nationals’ and ‘beef eaters’.