LI Network
Published on: October 5, 2023 at 12:04 IST
The Kerala High Court has granted permission to Gugulloth Lakshman, a suspended Inspector General of Kerala Police, to withdraw his plea seeking to quash the case registered against him in the Monson Mavunkal cheating case.
However, Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan ordered him to pay a cost of Rs. 10,000 and expressed disbelief in the suspended IG’s claim that his counsel had filed the plea without his instructions.
The court noted that there is a presumption that a lawyer prepares a brief and files it before the court based on instructions from their client. In this case, the petitioner, who is an IG of police, had not filed any complaint with the Bar Council against his counsel for making the serious allegation that the plea was filed without his instructions. This raised doubts about the accuracy of the petitioner’s claim.
The case against IG Lakshman and Mavunkal was registered in September 2021, based on a complaint alleging cheating of Rs. 10 crores on the false promise of repayment. Lakshman was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including forgery, using forged documents, cheating, and criminal conspiracy.
Initially, the quashing plea was filed by Advocate Noble Mathew, arguing that the allegations in the FIR did not constitute any offense against Lakshman, and no evidence had been found against him during the investigation. However, Advocate Mathew later withdrew as counsel, and the IG filed an affidavit through a different counsel, claiming that Advocate Mathew had filed the quashing petition without his instructions.
While allowing the IG to withdraw the plea, the court ordered him to pay the cost to the High Court Legal Services Authority within a month.
