Senior advocate Vrinda Grover was revealed to be a part of the legal team of the Cockroach Party, the group that was seemingly backed by the AAP ecosystem which orchestrated protests and unrest in the national capital in the name of opposition to NEET question paper leakage.
A special thanks to the queen of all cockroaches, @vrindagrover ma’am, for fighting the legal battle and ensuring justice for all the students and the victims’ families.
May your tribe grow, ma’am! ❤️
— Abhijeet Dipke (@abhijeet_dipke) September 1, 2026
But Grover is hardly a newcomer to politically charged and controversial legal battles.
Her legal career includes representing Yakub Memon, a convicted terrorist in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts; Mukesh Singh, one of the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder convicts; Mohammed Zubair; and the family of Ishrat Jahan, among several other high-profile cases.
Here is a look at some of the people and causes she has chosen to defend.
Yakub Memon: Convicted Terrorist In The 1993 Mumbai Blasts
One of the most controversial episodes in Grover’s legal career came in 2015, when she was part of the legal team fighting to stop the execution of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon.
Memon was convicted for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, which killed 257 people and injured more than 700.
On the night of July 29-30, 2015, as Memon’s execution approached, the Supreme Court opened its doors in the early hours for an extraordinary last-minute hearing.
Grover and other lawyers rushed to the residence of then Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and sought a stay on the execution.
The legal battle continued through the early morning hours.
The Supreme Court ultimately rejected the plea, holding that Memon had already exhausted extensive legal remedies. He was hanged at Nagpur Central Jail at around 6:30 AM on July 30, 2015.
In other words, the lawyer now representing the CJP was among those who fought until the final hours to save a convicted terrorist from the gallows.
Mukesh Singh: Nirbhaya Case Convicted Rapist
Grover also represented Mukesh Kumar Singh, one of the four men sentenced to death for the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder of Nirbhaya.
When then-President Ram Nath Kovind rejected Mukesh’s mercy petition, Grover challenged the decision before the Supreme Court.
She argued that the mercy petition had been rejected with undue haste and that relevant mitigating circumstances had not been properly considered.
The Supreme Court rejected the challenge.
Mukesh Singh, along with Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma, was executed at Tihar Jail on March 20, 2020.
Mohammed Zubair: Alleged Fact Checker
Grover was also part of the legal team representing Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair after his arrest in 2022.
Zubair had been arrested over a 2018 tweet featuring an image from a Hindi film. Multiple FIRs were subsequently registered against him.
Grover challenged the proceedings, arguing that the multiple cases were being used to keep Zubair trapped in a cycle of criminal proceedings.
The Supreme Court eventually granted Zubair interim bail in the cases before it and transferred the investigation into the remaining proceedings to Delhi. The court also disbanded the Uttar Pradesh SIT. Grover was Zubair’s counsel before the Supreme Court.
The Zubair case cemented Grover’s position as one of the prominent lawyers defending controversial social-media figures and free-speech cases.
Ishrat Jahan: Challenging Headley’s Terror Link Claim
Grover also represented the family of Ishrat Jahan, who was killed in a 2004 police encounter in Gujarat.
The case became one of the biggest political controversies surrounding Narendra Modi’s tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister.
In 2016, 26/11 accused David Coleman Headley told a Mumbai court that Ishrat Jahan was associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Grover rejected the claim and described Headley’s statement as highly manipulative and lacking legal value. She argued that Headley’s statement was based on hearsay and was being used for a political purpose.
The Ishrat Jahan case subsequently became a major political battleground, with competing claims over whether she was an innocent young woman caught in a fake encounter or had links to a terror conspiracy.
Grover firmly represented the former position.
A few of the cases Vrinda Grover has fought in support of
1. Terrorist Yakub Menon
2. LKFC Zubair
3. Nirbhaya rapist
4. Terrorist Ishrat Jahan, who came to assassinate Narendra Modi in Gujarat with some other terrorists. https://t.co/3ZjNUQ5uen pic.twitter.com/v3wGtOyxiu— Office Of Vijay Patel (@VijayGajeraO) September 1, 2026
Withdrew As Counsel For RG Kar Rape-Murder Case
Grover later represented the family of the RG Kar Medical College rape-and-murder victim in Kolkata.
Her chamber said it had provided pro bono legal representation to the family from September 2024, appearing before the Supreme Court, Calcutta High Court and Sealdah trial court.
Her team eventually withdrew from the case in December 2024, citing “certain intervening factors and circumstances”.
The withdrawal came after significant portions of the trial had already taken place. Reports also pointed to differences between the victim’s family and the legal team.
The case became politically contentious, with BJP leaders questioning Grover’s role and alleging that her political proximity to the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC leadership raised questions about her involvement. Those political allegations remain allegations and should be treated as such.
The Type Of People She Defends In Court Speaks A Lot About Her Integrity
Across the years, Grover has repeatedly chosen to represent people at the centre of cases involving terrorism, bomb blasts, rape and murder convictions, alleged terror links, and politically charged unrest. From Yakub Memon and Mukesh Singh to Ishrat Jahan’s family and Mohammed Zubair, and later the RG Kar victim’s family before her withdrawal from that case, the pattern of clients she has taken up is striking.
And the latest destination is the Cockroach Party.
The question is not simply which cases Grover has handled. It is what the cumulative choice of cases, clients and causes says about the kind of people and movements she has repeatedly been willing to stand behind legally.
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