ALAPPUZHA: ‘Fake lawyer’ Sessy Xavier, 29, of Ramankary in Kuttanad, who went absconding in 2021, surrendered before the Alappuzha Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on Tuesday. She was booked by Alappuzha North police in 2021 for practising as a lawyer in Alappuzha for two-and-a-half years with fake certificates.
The court remanded her to judicial custody. She was sent to Special Sub Jail in Mavelikkara. 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 the letter, 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 and lodged a complaint with the police against her. Soon she went absconding.
When she was practising as a lawyer, she appeared in court in 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 committed the fraud using the roll number of an advocate in Thiruvananthapuram and produced fake certificates to get the membership.
The police registered a 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) .
She reportedly came to a local court in Alappuzha to surrender on July 22, 2021. But she left the premises soon after she came to know that the probe team had slapped non-bailable charges against her.
Though she moved an anticipatory bail plea in the High Court later, the court dismissed her application and directed her to surrender. The police issued a lookout notice against her in September 2021. Before she went absconding, she was practising as an advocate in various courts in Alappuzha, said the police.