Kochi: The Kerala High Court here on Monday granted anticipatory bail to Congress leader and lawyer Laly Vincent in a cheating case related to the multi-crore CSR fund scam. As per the case, Ananthu Krishnan, the prime accused in the scam, transferred Rs 47,74,500 swindled from people to the Congress leader's bank account over a period of four years. In her plea, Laly Vincent argued that Ananthu paid the amount as her fee for providing legal advice to him.

Kannur Town South Police booked Laly Vincent under Sections 316(2) and 318(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. She is named as the seventh accused in the case.

As per the complaint, Laly, Ananthu Krishnan, and others swindled money from people after launching a scheme that offered two-wheelers to women at half price. Apart from two-wheelers, Ananthu Krishnan defrauded crores from ordinary people by promising laptops, home appliances, and sewing machines at half price after convincing applicants that big companies were funding the project under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

In the anticipatory bail plea before the High Court, the Congress leader claimed that she was performing her professional duties and that criminal offences could not be alleged against her simply because she accepted a professional fee from the main accused.

The court has directed Laly to appear before the investigating officer within two weeks.

A bench headed by Justice PV Kunhikrishnan observed that a detailed probe should be carried out to confirm whether the petitioner is involved in the scam or not.

“It cannot be said that the Petitioner is involved in allegation raised by prosecution. But I will leave it there. It is a matter to be investigated by the investigating officer. As on today, the allegation is that an amount of Rs 47,74,500 is credited to the account of the Petitioner. The Petitioner has got a different case that it is professional fee. In such circumstances, as on today, I am not in a position to conclude that Petitioner has any involvement in this case at this stage, but I make it clear that investigating officer is free to investigate in accordance with law. I make such an observation only for the purpose of deciding the bail application and the that investigating officer is free to investigate the matter untrammelled by any observations,” pronounced the Court while grating bail to the Congress leader.

The Court said that a common order will be issued directing people who are booked in CSR fund scam to surrender before the investigating officer within two weeks for interrogation.