Kasaragod: In allegations that strike at the foundation of the criminal justice system, two businessmen have accused a nexus of police officers, lawyers, and politicians of running a blackmailing racket that targets people using sexual offence cases, fake or genuine.
In one complaint, a 37-year-old NRI businessman, who runs supermarkets in an East Asian country, released recordings of phone conversations with Hosdurg Station House Officer (SHO) - Inspector P K Shine, and with his advocate C H Nusaib to buttress his charge that the two, under the guise of settling an alleged sexual offence against a minor girl, tried to extort money from him.
Nusaib is the Kasaragod district treasurer of IUML's freeder organisation Lawyers' Forum.
Another accused Noufal, who the NRI businessman said, introduced the underaged girl as a potential bride to him, is the former state secretary of the youth organisation of Janata Dal (Secular), a constituent of the ruling LDF government. He reportedly left for Indonesia after the complaint was filed.
Nusaib's junior partner in the firm, Biju Krishna is a leader of the Congress's Indian Lawyers’ Congress (ILC). Biju Krishna is also named in the NRI businessman's complaint.
Another 42-year-old entrepreneur (42), who sells vegetables in Kanhangad town, alleged lawyer Nusaib extorted Rs 50,000 from him and pressurised him for another Rs 50,000 by threatening to slap a sexual assault case on him. "When I approached Hosdurg police station with a complaint that a gang was blackmailing me using my WhatsApp chats with a woman, the police put my friends to Adv Nusaib. He demanded Rs 3 lakh to settle the case. Later, he reduced it to Rs 1 lakh," said the vegetable seller, who is married and has two children. "When my friends were negotiating with Adv Nusaib in his chamber, I was made to stand in the police station from 10 am to 5 pm. They did not give me food or water. It was the inspector's way of breaking me down mentally," he said.
For two months, Adv Nusaib allegedly kept demanding the remaining Rs 50,000 from him. "When I rebuffed the lawyer and his goons, he made the woman file a sexual assault case against me. The police came to my vegetable shop at 11 pm on October 11, 2023, and arrested me. Nusaib was with them," said the entrepreneur. "I spent 24 days in prison for a crime I did not commit. Ten days in the Kasaragod District Jail and 14 days in Kannur Central Prison," he said. "If I had sexually assaulted the woman, why did the police not arrest me on the day I approached the police with the blackmail complaint or the next day? Why wait for two months?" he said.
On January 4, the vegetable seller filed a detailed complaint against Inspector Shine and lawyer Nusaib with District Police Chief P Bijoy.
The NRI businessman filed complaints against the police officer and the lawyer with Bijoy and Kerala Police's North Zone Inspector General K Sethu Raman. "I have forwarded the complaint against Inspector Shine to the Special Branch DySP (Manoj V V)," said District Police Chief Bijoy. The complaint against the lawyer has been forwarded to Kanhangad DySP Balakrishnan P, he said.
On December 27, 2023, the day the NRI businessman filed the complaint against the police officer and the lawyer with the District Police Chief, Hosdurg Police booked him for penetrative sexual assault under the stringent Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Lawyer's defence
According to the NRI businessman's complaint, Adv Nusaib's accomplice Noufal brought in a marriage proposal for a minor girl for him in July 2023. He rejected it after finding out the girl was only 17 years old. But on December 20, 2023, when he married another woman from Shivamogga in Karnataka, the minor girl's family approached Hosdurg Police Station with a complaint of sexual assault. But instead of registering an FIR, Inspector Shine, Adv Nusaib, and politician Noufal tried to use the complaint to extort Rs 15 lakh from him, said the complaint.
In his defence, Adv Nusaib said the original complaint against the NRI businessman filed by the victim girl's elder sister on December 20 was not a POCSO (sexual offence against children) case. It was a defamation case because he had publicised photos of "his engagement with the minor girl" on social media and then went on to marry another woman. As the NRI businessman's advocate, Nusaib said he tried to help his client by trying for an out-of-court settlement.
Only on December 27, the victim girl filed a sexual offence complaint and the police promptly registered an FIR. "When I was negotiating with my client, I did not know there was a POCSO case," he said.
Inspector Shine did not respond to calls made to his phone. In his defence, Kanhangad DySP Balakrishnan said an initial petition from the girl's family asked the police to stop his wedding to the woman from Shivamogga. The police were firm that it could not be done. The rest of the charges against the police would not stand, he said. "There is no evidence that the officer tried to negotiate or settle a POCSO case. The police cannot be answerable if a lawyer asks for money from his client," said Balakrishnan.
The NRI family does make a strong case against the police and the lawyer.
Breakdown of marriage & shady proposal
On June 24, 2023, the NRI businessman's wife walked out of the marriage, leaving behind him and their three-year-old son. He filed a 'person missing' complaint at Hosdurg Police Station the same day and contacted advocate Nusaib C H for legal advice.
Later, his wife filed a police complaint against him, his mother, elder brother, elder brother's wife, and younger brother, accusing them of subjecting her to cruelty under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
She also approached the Family Court for the custody of their son.
On July 1, 2023, six days after his wife walked out on him, the NRI businessman received a marriage proposal from Adv Nusaib's 'friend' Noufal. The prospective bride was Noufal's relative, whose father was a heart patient and mother a cancer patient, Adv Nusaib told Onmanorama. When asked how he knew Noufal, the advocate said he represented Noufal in a cheating case.
The businessman's brothers said that though the marriage proposal was the advocate's idea, their family agreed to it for the sake of the child.
The businessman met Noufal's relative at a restaurant in Kanhangad and agreed to take it forward.
The following day, that is on July 2, his family went to her house in Vidyanagar police station limits, to fix the marriage. But there, the businessman doubted the age of the prospective bride. The girl said she was 17 years old and would turn 18 in March 2024.
"My brother immediately pulled out of the alliance. But Noufal insisted she was 18 years and her school could verify her age," said the businessman's younger brother.
On July 3, 2023, both the families and the girl went to Puttur in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada where the girl did her schooling. "The school records said she was 17 years and my brother immediately backed off from the alliance," the brother said.
The businessman gave Noufal Rs 25,000 to bear the expenses the girl's family might have incurred over the past few days.
The negotiator
On July 10, 2023, when the businessman was scheduled to fly out with his son to his place of work, his younger brother contacted advocate Nusaib to check if there were any legal hurdles for them to travel abroad because of the pending cases filed by his separated wife.
Nusaib reportedly told the younger brother that she had filed a complaint with the District Police Chief asking him not to allow their son to be taken out of the country. "The advocate then demanded Rs 1 lakh to settle the case. After hectic negotiation, he reduced the amount to Rs 50,000, which he sought in the name of the District Police Chief," said the complaint.
Onmanorama has accessed the complaints and the recordings of the phone conversations the advocate and the inspector had with the businessman and his brothers. The family transferred Rs 50,000 to the lawyer via GPay for a safe journey.
Later, Nusaib allegedly told the younger brother that he could also get the cruelty case against the family dropped because the Hosdurg Inspector Shine was "my man". For that, he demanded Rs 1 lakh.
The businessman reportedly told his lawyer that he could face the cruelty charge against him but the charges against his mother, two brothers, and sister-in-law should be dropped. After negotiation, the advocate allegedly agreed to settle for Rs 50,000.
Adv Nusaib allegedly picked Noufal to receive the money and the businessman's younger brother transferred Rs 50,000 to Noufal via GPay, according to the complaint.
In at least two phone conversations, Nusaib acknowledged receiving Rs 1 lakh in two tranches, but he did not admit that it was for the Kasaragod District Police Chief or Inspector Shine. In one conversation, he said it was his fees. "You need not know who I gave the money to," he is heard saying in one conversation.
'Hey, did you settle the complaint?'
On December 20, 2023, the businessman married a woman from Shivamogga district in Karnataka. On the way to Shivamogga for the wedding, the businessman got a call from Hosdurg Station House Officer - Inspector Shine saying the minor girl's family was at the police station to press charges against him and asked him to call the lawyer (Nusaib).
The conversation went like this:
Shine: Hey D*****d, they have come to the station again with the complaint. Have you settled it?
Businessman: No... No, Sir. I am still talking to them.
Shine: They are here with the complaint.
Businessman: We spoke with the lawyer. They are asking for Rs 15 lakh. They reduced it to Rs 12 lakh. I said we could spare something but not this big amount. Even the lawyer is convinced that I did not do anything. Noufal also admitted to it.
Shine: Do something and settle the case.
Businessman: The lawyer said they will not compromise below Rs 12 lakh.
Shine: Is it?
Businessman: Sir, this is a big amount. If it was some small amount, I could have done something.
Shine: I will not ask you to give them money. Nor will I ask you to settle. But they are here pressing for an FIR. Call the lawyer and at least tell him to call back. If they heed to him...
Businessman: Are they with Nusaib?
Shine: They have your passport details. I don't know who gave them that. But if an LOC (lookout corner) notice is issued, your trip abroad tomorrow or the day after will be blocked.
The businessman's brothers said that they started recording the calls of the advocate and the inspector because they lost trust in them.
On December 18, when the businessman returned from abroad, Adv Nusaib and his partner Biju Krishna brought Inspector Shine to their house to "convince them of his closeness to the officer". They came around 7 pm and spent around 90 minutes. The officers were in civil clothes and came in Nusaib's private car.
When asked about this visit, Nusaib said that in an ex-parte order, the Family Court gave the custody of the three-year-old boy to the mother. "We wanted to take the child's statement but it would not be proper to take the child to the police station. That's why I took the officer to his house," he said.
But Nusaib's argument does not hold much water because the police have no role in a child custody case in the Family Court, said the businessman's younger brother. "I am a school dropout but even I know that," he said.
Throughout, the businessman alleged that Noufal, through his advocate Nusaib, kept asking for Rs 15 lakh to settle the sexual assault complaint. Later he reduced it to Rs 12 lakh.
Defamation or POCSO case?
On December 25, 2023, the businessman organised a wedding reception at his house in Kanhangad.
On Christmas Eve, around 5.30 pm, the businessman's brother told advocate Nusaib over the phone that the family needed more time to raise Rs 12 lakh demanded by Noufal.
Adv Nusaib said that was okay. "Are we Yousuf Ali to have money in hand?" Despite what he said, the lawyer kept pressuring the family to come up with the money fast. Noufal suspected that the new husband would leave India with his new wife after the reception, he said. Also, "what the CI (circle inspector) is saying is if he sits on a POCSO complaint for two or three days, he will lose his job. But he kept it a secret because of his relationship with me and because he came to your house the day before yesterday. But if it (the delay in registering a case) comes out and a complaint is raised, he will lose his job", the lawyer said.
A day before, on December 23, around 10.27 pm, Adv Nusaib said on the phone that the Inspector could do little in a POCSO case. "Tomorrow I will talk to the CI. If he wanted, he could have registered an FIR. But he did not because of his regard for me. If Noufal uses his Janata Dal connections with the Youth Commission and raises this issue at a higher level, the CI will lose his job.
"If he gets a complaint, he should not even tell us. Now it's two days since he got the complaint. He is doing it for us. So we should ensure that he is not put in trouble," Adv Nusaib told the businessman's brother.
When Onmanorama shared the audio with Nusaib, he said he was already in possession of the recordings. "This I can defend. I was answering their hypothetical question on what if the girl's family files a POCSO case against the businessman," he said.
However, his conversations did not quite appear to be hypothetical answers. He sounded sure of the existence of a sexual assault complaint.
Adv Nusaib then shared with Onmanorama the complaint the victim girl's sister purportedly filed on December 20. The complaint asked the police to stop the businessman's wedding to the woman from Shivamogga as he was already engaged with the minor girl.
The businessman's younger brother said the complaint was forged. "I know for sure because the inspector had read to me the POCSO complaint when I went to the police station on December 22," he said.
On December 27, when the businessman's family filed a complaint against the police officer and the lawyer, the same evening, Hosdurg Police booked him for kidnapping (Section 363 of IPC), trafficking of a minor (S370 of IPC), rape (S376 (1) of IPC) and penetrative sexual assault (Sections 3 and 4 of POCSO Act), his brother said.
"They will have to prove where and how this crime happened because after July 3, my brother was never in contact with the girl or met her," he said.
One thing the police should investigate is why the girl in Vidyanagar police limit came to Hosdurg station, 30km away, to file her complaint, the brother said.
The vegetable seller raised a similar allegation saying there would be more victims of the Advocate-Inspector nexus.
Complaint with Bar Association
The NRI businessman had also filed a complaint with the Hosdurg Bar Association against Adv Nusaib and Adv Biju Krishna accusing them of professional misconduct.
Hosdurg Bar Association President Saseendran K C said the complaint would be discussed by the executive committee. "If there is merit in the complaint, show-cause notices would be served to the two lawyers to explain their position. Based on their reply, an inquiry would be instituted," he said.
Adv Saseendran said the Bar Association can only oust them from the association, at the most. Only the Bar Council can take stringent action against debarring lawyers from practising, he said. "For that, the complainant may directly approach the Bar Council," he said.
