KOCHI : Two days after the Supreme Court dismissed his anticipatory bail, former senior government pleader P G Manu, who was on the run after being named an accused in a sexual assault case, surrendered before police on Wednesday. He surrendered at the office of the Puthencruz DySP in the morning. The SC, while rejecting his anticipatory bail plea on Tuesday, had directed him to surrender within ten days. Manu had approached the Kerala High Court seeking anticipatory bail, which the court rejected. Dismissing his plea on December 22, it directed him to surrender before police within 10 days. However, after he moved the SC against the rejection of anticipatory bail, the HC, on January 4, granted him ten more days to surrender. Puthencruz DySP issued a lookout notice on January 14 after the period granted by the HC to surrender ended.
A 25-year-old resident of Ernakulam had filed a complaint saying she had sought the pleader’s help to quash an FIR registered in 2018 on a sexual assault case filed by her. She approached the pleader as the case was causing her mental trauma. The woman alleged that Manu called her to his office, assaulted her sexually and also took photographs of her on his mobile phone. As the pleader continued to pester her, the woman lodged a complaint with Ernakulam Rural SP Vaibhav Saxena, who handed it over to Chottanikkara police.
The police registered an FIR under sections 376 (rape), 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC, along with relevant sections of the IT Act. Subsequently, the pleader resigned from his post.