ALAPPUZHA: ‘Fake lawyer' Sessy Xavier, who went absconding in 2021, surrendered before the Alappuzha Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old Sessy, a native of Ramamkary in Kuttanad, was booked by Alappuzha North Police in 2021 for practising as a lawyer with fake certificates for two and half years at the Alappuzha district court.
On Tuesday, the court remanded her to judicial custody. She was sent to Special Sub Jail in Mavelikara. She also moved an application in the court seeking bail in the case.
The case against Sessy began after the Alappuzha Bar Association lodged a complaint against her. In 2021, Alappuzha Bar Association received an anonymous letter regarding her qualifications. Following this, in June 2021, the association conducted a probe and the association sought an explanation from her. But she failed to prove her qualifications.
So, the association expelled her from the association, which also lodged a complaint with the police against her. Soon she went absconding.
When she was practising as a lawyer, she appeared in court for various cases. She had also worked as an advocate commission in some cases. She had been working with the association since March 2018 and was given a membership in March 2019.
According to the complaint of the association, she allegedly provided a roll number of an advocate in Thiruvananthapuram and produced fake certificates to get the membership.
Alappuzha North police registered the case against her in July 2021 under Sections 417 (punishment for cheating), 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code.
She reportedly came to a local court in Alappuzha to surrender on July 22, 2021. But she left soon after she came to know that the investigation team had slapped a non-bailable section against her. Though she later moved an anticipatory bail plea in the Kerala High Court, the court dismissed her application and directed her to surrender before the police. The police issued a lookout notice against her in September 2021. Earlier this month, the investigation into the case was handed over to the Crime Branch.