Kerala Police registers FIR against Kerala High Court Advocates Association President Saiby Jose Kidangoor

The Kerala Police on Monday registered a first information report (FIR) against advocate and president of the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association (KHCAA), Saiby Jose Kidangoor who has been under the scanner over allegations that he fleeced large sums of money from his clients under the pretext of using it to bribe some judges of the Kerala High Court..After conducting a preliminary enquiry over the last couple of weeks, the Ernakulam Central Police Station registered the FIR against the High Court lawyer on February 1. Kidangoor has been charged under Section 420 (cheating and dishonesty inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code which is a cognisable and non-bailable offence. He has also been 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 only recently elected as the president of the KHCAA has been embroiled in controversy since the allegations made against him by his fellow lawyers started gaining momentum on social media.A 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 sent to the Kerala Police that in turn initiated its own investigation.As per a press release from the State Police, the initial investigation has indicated that there is substance to the allegations against Kidangoor, leading to the registration of the FIR. .Just this Monday, the Bar Council of Kerala (BCK) had initiated suo motu proceedings and issued a show cause notice to Kidangoor after an emergency meeting that it had convened.The BCK also received a copy from the Union Law Ministry of a complaint that it had received regarding this scandal. The complaint alleged that Kidangoor has sway over judges, vigilance officers, police, politicians and "underworld gangs in Kerala" and, therefore, some supervision by the Ministry on the probe is required.Since the letter/ complaint annexed by the Law Ministry was signed off by "advocates of Kerala" with no clarity regarding the identity of the complainant or complainants, the BCK also decided to seek more information from the ministry in this regard.