Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 14 (BPNS)
For the second time, the Kerala High Court has refused to grant any relief to advocate Saiby Jose Kidangoor, who is facing the charge of collecting money from clients under the pretext of bribing judges. The court instead told Saiby that he should appear before the investigating officer as and when required and he shall cooperate with the investigation.
Earlier, the prosecutor handed over the preliminary inquiry report of the investigation conducted by the Commissioner of Police, Ernakulam regarding the bribe scandal.
The prosecutor also told the court that the investigation is going on and it is in the preliminary stage.
Meanwhile, the counsel for Saiby told the court that he is ready to appear before the investigating officer and cooperate with the investigation.
At the same time, he demanded that the investigating agency may also investigate the allegations leveled by the petitioner that there is a
conspiracy behind the filing of the complaint against him.
Though Justice Kauser Edappagath, who considered the petition, mentioned the demand of Saiby’s counsel in his interim order, the court didn’t give any specific directions to the police on the same.
The petition will be considered again after two weeks.
It was on February 6 that the court first dismissed Saiby’s plea for quashing the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him. Justice Kauser who considered the plea then said that the demand is premature and observed that the allegations were very serious.
It was on February 1 that the police registered a case against Saiby. It was Ernakulam Central Police Station that registered the case for cheating (section 420 of the Indian Penal Code deals with cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, which deals with offenses and penalties for public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act.
The case is being investigated by a special team under the direct monitoring of ADGP Shaik Darvesh Sahib.
“A letter was received by the State Police Chief from the High Court Registrar. Based on that Kochi City Police Commissioner was asked to conduct a preliminary inquiry. As it was found merit in the complaint, an FIR has been registered,” read an excerpt of a release from the police headquarters then.
It was after another lawyer put up a Facebook post that Saiby’s alleged ill-doings came to light. It was accused that Saiby used to collect large sums of money from some clients that include some celebrity clients, under the pretext that he would use it to bribe several judges, including high court Justices A Muhammad Mustaque, PV Kunhikrishnan, Ziyad Rahman AA, and others.
Upon coming to know about the post, it is learned that it was Justice Kunhikrishnan who directed the Registrar to conduct an inquiry.
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