𝐙𝐚𝐫𝐚- 𝟐𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 (ON HOLD)

𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫

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Malik Mansion, Delhi, India, 8:30 PM, October 24th

1 and a half hour. That is how long the news had been on, but already the Maliks were getting death threats. What was the news you ask? Well, it had only been a day since Arsalan was given the title of Prime Minister and the losing party had played a dirty game. They had somehow gotten a woman to file an FIR against Arsalan saying that he raped her, with fake medical reports as proof.

When Faaz and Farhan had told the others to watch the news, they certainly didn't expect to see this. Arsalan had immediately called Rohan Khatri, his new head of legal matters and told him to come to the Malik Mansion. The doors and windows had been locked for safety purposes and the entire Malik family was advised to be on lock up until the case was over. This meant that they could not step outside the house until the verdict of the case had been announced.

This propaganda was not new to the Maliks. This happened at least once a year, sometimes twice, but the accusation that was hurled on Arsalan was huge this time around. India is a huge democracy, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Here the people picked the leader. How long a leader led was not based on their talent, but how much the public agreed with them. And when fake news like this was given a public platform, the result was disastrous for both the family and the leader.

Surprisingly, Rohan Khatri was nothing like his father. On his ride to the Maliks, he had called up all the lawyers in India and discussed the case with them. None supported Arsalan. The reason being that in India when a woman says she has been molested or physically abused to any degree, with proof, it is almost impossible to prove that wrong to the judge. Especially when a political figure is accused of the crime.

As soon as Rohan reached the Malik Mansion he skipped the introductions and got straight to the point, "I have called all the top lawyers in the country and they all are saying they cannot take your case. I do not have the degree to fight criminal defense as I am a constitutional lawyer. Here are the case files I got from the police station. This has all the charges and accusations in it. Also a copy of the medical report is attached."

Arsalan, Ashar, Abbas and Aadil looked impressed with his intelligence. Rohan had a heavy British accent coating his voice due to his stay in London. Aadil took the file from his hand and he and Arsalan read through it. Then, Amir suggested, "What about global lawyers? If they have the license to fight here, why not contact them?"

Rohan sighed at the question and explained, "You have to pass a bar exam to get the license, hence there are not that many global lawyers who do that and the ones that have the license are too rich to get themselves involved in such a scandalous case with more risk than returns."

Arsalan sighed heavily. He could not blame the lawyers, when it was so hard to argue something that was controversial, it was not a surprise that they didn't agree. No one in their right mind would. Rohan got a call from his father and excused himself from the room. All the other Maliks were trying to think of a way out of this when Faaz spoke, "Arsh Bhai, I have a suggestion that might work."

Everyone looked at him and Arsalan nodded, desperate for a way out of this. Faaz looked at Farhan, who spoke on his behalf, "Ummm...so the main problem is finding a good lawyer that will agree to fight. You do realize that we can just contact her...I mean..."

Farhan stopped when Arham raised his hand, gesturing for him to stop talking. Aadil spoke on Arsalan's behalf, "That can never be possible. Please refrain from suggesting something like that again."