Kerala High Court allows IG G Lakshman to withdraw plea against fake antiques FIR but slaps ₹10k costs

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday allowed Inspector General (IG) of Kerala Police G Lakshman to withdraw a petition to quash the case registered against him for his alleged involvement in a cheating case connected to notorious fake antiques dealer Monson Mavunkal [Gugulloth Lakshman IPS v State of Kerala & Anr.]..Justice PV Kunjikrishnan, however, also asked the senior police officer to pay ₹10,000 as costs in view of certain allegations he made in this petition over the manner in which the case was filed and about the alleged role of an "extra-constitutional authority" who allegedly worked at the Chief Minister's Office (CMO)..The petition had initially stated that an extra-constitutional authority appeared to be functioning in the CMO and that such "invisible hands" and "extra-constitutional brains" had pulled strings to file the first information report (FIR) against Lakshman..Lakshman later filed an affidavit before the High Court stating that these allegations were included in the petition without his knowledge by his lawyer Nobel Mathew..The High Court, however, was not convinced by the explanation. Justice Kunjikrishnan stressed that when a lawyer prepares a brief, it is presumed that the lawyer prepared it on the instructions of his client. He also observed that there is no evidence to show that the lawyer filed the petition without getting instructions from Lakshman..“There is a presumption that if a lawyer prepares a brief and file it before the court. The averment in the brief is as instructed by the client. There is absolutely no evidence produced before the court to show that the lawyer filed the Criminal MC petition without getting instructions from the petitioner,” the High Court's order stated. .The judge observed that it appeared as if Lakshman was now blaming the lawyer even though he is an inspector general of police and not an ordinary person. .The Court further pointed out that the IPS officer could have filed a complaint before the Bar Council of Kerala if he was aggrieved by his lawyer's actions but he has not done so.“The petitioner has not filed any complaint before the Bar Council of Kerala against the counsel for making such a serious allegation in the Criminal MC case. That itself shows that what the petitioner says in the affidavit is not correct," the Court's order said. .Therefore, the High Court refused to believe what Lakshman had to say in his affidavit and allowed the police officer to withdraw the plea at a cost of ₹10,000.The High Court directed Lakshman to pay this amount to the High Court Legal Service Authority within a month's time. "If the amount is not paid to the legal service authority, it can resume revenue proceedings against the petitioner, “ the Court added. .The case against Lakshman is tied to Monson Mavunkal who gained notoriety in Kerala after news reports surfaced that he had allegedly conned several people of over ₹10 crores through fake antique scams.A crime was registered against Mavunkal on 23 September 2021.In June this year IG Lakshman along with Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President K Sudhakaran and former DIG (Deputy Inspector General of Police) S Surendran, were arrayed as accused in the case by the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP)On June 9, the DySP filed a report before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court arraying IG Lakshman as the third accused.Lakshman maintained that he was falsely implicated and that the undisputed allegations in the FIR also would not make out any case against him. He also argued that it was nothing but an abuse of the process of law to implicate him in the criminal case 24 months after it was initially registered. Lakshman is presently out on interim bail in the said case..On a related note, the High Court recently granted bail to K Sudhakaran, and S Surendran.