ALAPPUZHA: Cessy Xavier, the fake lawyer who escaped from a courtroom here last week, remains
elusive though the police have intensified their search for her. The 27-year-old woman has been practising in Alappuzha courts without a valid law degree certificate for more than two-and-a-half years after hoodwinking the Alappuzha Bar Association.
Alappuzha North Police Station House Officer K P Vinod said, "We are searching the suspected hideouts of Cessy, a native of Ramankari in Kuttanad, but we could not trace her. Her mobile phone has been switched off. She escaped from the court on July 22 after she realised that the court had rejected her anticipatory bail plea on a complaint filed by the Alappuzha Bar Association. We had carried out a search in her house at Ramankari, but did not get anything to prove that she had forged the certificate presented at the Bar," the officer said.
Meanwhile, the Alappuzha Bar Association has taken a decision that none of its members would appear for her in the court. The police suspect that she continues to remain in hiding because of this.
The Alappuzha North police have registered a case under Sections 417 (cheating) and 419 (cheating by impersonation) of the IPC based on the complaint filed by Alappuzha Bar Association secretary Abhilash Soman saying she didn't have the required qualification and that she had presented a fake roll number of the Kerala Bar Council to the association.
Earlier, the association had received an anonymous letter stating that her certificates were fake. Following this, the association examined her roll number and found that she was using another lawyer's credentials. The association also found out that she had not registered herself with the Kerala Bar Council, the police said. She had even contested in the association's elections and became a member of the district committee. After her win, she was given charge of the library.
In the complaint, the association office-bearers have also alleged that she had taken many rare documents
away from the library. The police have registered a case of theft against her in this regard.The police said the woman had told her friends that though she did her law graduation in Thiruvananthapuram, she had to discontinue the studies and later completed the course in Bengaluru. When the Bar Association asked
her to present the law degree certificate and other documents after receiving the anonymous letter, she went into hiding.
An advocate practising in Alappuzha said her family's financial background is not sound and both her parents eke out a living doing odd jobs. "Hence, she doesn't have the financial resources to evade arrest in the case for long. She had not forged any documents, but presented a fake enrolment number to the Bar Association before starting practice in the courts. At the time of her studies in Thiruvananthapuram, she did internship in Alappuzha courts and she built a good relationship with Bar Association members. That is why the association allowed her to practise in the courts after the completion of the course, without cross-checking her educational qualifications," the lawyer said.Interestingly, she had also worked as the advocate
commission in many cases.
The Bar Council of Kerala is examining whether there had been anomalies in the sittings of the commission. "If the parties concerned in the cases in which Cessy functioned as the advocate commission raise suspicion, the court will examine the reports submitted by her. There is no need to cancel a report submitted by a person who acted as an advocate using a fake certificate. If the commission's report submitted by Cessy is found to be inaccurate, the court may cancel that report and appoint another commission, the lawyer said.