The Madras High Court Bench here on Friday dismissed anticipatory bail applications filed by an advocate couple who had allegedly cheated several gullible jobseekers to the tune of Rs. 53 lakh by promising to secure jobs for them as Office Assistants and Duffedars in the High Court.
Justice P.N. Prakash also expressed dismay over the conduct of a woman counsel, appearing on behalf of one of the accused, who passed on information to her client about orders passed by the court to freeze a bank locker and helped the accused to withdraw 60 sovereigns of jewels from the locker.
The judge said the accused, Satheeshkumar and his wife Chandra of Tiruppattur in Sivaganga district, had initially projected a false picture before the court as if they got estranged and that Chandra herself was a victim of her husband’s machinations.
However, during the course of arguments, the court found through submissions made by the counsel for Satheeshkumar that the latter had purchased gold jewels for his wife with the ill-gotten money and the valuables were in a bank locker opened in the name of their houseowner.
On March 11, the judge ordered the police to verify the contents of the locker and file a report. Within minutes after the order was passed, Chandra’s counsel tipped her client who, in turn, made her houseowner operate the locker on the same day and take away all the jewels.
“The most agonising fact is that this is a case relating to an offence concerning the High Court which provides not only bread and butter but also respect and status for the legal practitioners in society. If the assertion of the police is true, then it means that the said counsel is running with hare and hunting with the hound.
“I would like to prefer to live in the illusion that advocates would not resort to such sharp practices rather than suffer depression on their conduct,” the judge said, adding there were sufficient materials to prove that the advocate couple and their houseowner were all part of the conspiracy.
