State tells Kerala High Court charges against advocate Saiby Jose Kidangoor in judges bribery case will be dropped

The State government on Monday informed the Kerala High Court that it would be dropping charges against former President of the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association (KHCAA) in the judges' bribery case..The submission was made by the Public Prosecutor (PP) based on a report received from the investigating agency which found no evidence against Kidangoor. In response, Justice K Babu directed the PP to produce a copy of the final report of the investigation agency before adjourning further hearing by a week. "PP submits that the investigation agency submitted a report under caption 'further action dropped'. PP shall produce a copy of the final report. Post after a week," the High Court's order said. .The High Court was considering a petition filed by Kidangoor to quash the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him over allegations that he fleeced large sums of money from clients under the pretext of using it to bribe some judges of the Kerala High Court.After conducting a preliminary enquiry, the Ernakulam Central Police Station registered the FIR against the High Court lawyer on February 1.Kidangoor was charged under Section 420 (cheating and dishonesty inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code which is a cognizable and non-bailable offence.He was also charged under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act which deals with the offence of public servants taking gratification other than the legal remuneration in respect of an official act..Kidangoor, who was the President of the KHCAA when the case was filed, resigned soon after the allegations were raised against him. In his petition before the High Court, he also argued that the charges against him were concocted by some lawyers who harboured a vendetta against him..The case was filed after another lawyer put up a Facebook post in which he said that Kidangoor had been collecting large sums of money from some clients, including some celebrity clients, saying that he would use it to bribe several judges, including Justices A Muhamed Mustaque, PV Kunhikrishnan, Ziyad Rahman AA.Following the same, one of the judges Justice PV Kunhikrishnan, asked the High Court Registrar General to look into the allegations.The Registrar General furnished an initial report that he sent to the Chief Justice who in turn directed the vigilance wing of the High Court to initiate an enquiry.The vigilance wing's probe found prima facie evidence that Kidangoor had taken money from his clients by saying that he would use it to bribe some judges.The vigilance report was then sent to the Kerala Police, which in turn initiated its own investigation.As per a press release from the State Police, the initial investigation indicated that there was substance to the allegations against Kidangoor, leading to the registration of the FIR.Subsequently, a detailed probe was held by the Police which found no evidence against Kidangoor. .Meanwhile, on August 17, the High Court quashed a cheating case registered against Kidangoor, in which it had been alleged that he did not keep the promise of giving the complainant a beneficial position in some matrimonial cases in which Kidangoor was the complainant’s wife's counsel. In that case, the Court found that the allegations against the lawyer were vexatious, frivolous and amounted to an abuse of the legal process. .[Read Order]