Kochi: The Muvattupuzha Special Vigilance Judge on Thursday granted bail to the three accused—Ranjith Warriar, Mukesh Kumar and Wilson Varghese—in the bribery scam case involving an Enforcement Directorate (ED) official. 

As part of a trap set by the VACB, Wilson was arrested on May 15 while receiving a bribe of ₹2 lakh from a Kollam-based industrialist. Mukesh was arrested following Wilson’s statement.

The FIR named Assistant Director of ED Shekhar Kumar as the first accused, alleging he was the one who demanded the bribe from the industrialist in the first place. According to the VACB, Wilson and Mukesh collaborated with Shekhar Kumar to secure the bribe. Mukesh also provided the bank account details to Wilson for depositing the amount.

The fourth accused, Ranjith Warriar, is also implicated in the case.

The court noted that the police violated Article 22(1) of the Constitution by not properly informing the accused of the grounds for their arrest. There is no record showing the accused were informed of the reasons at or before their arrest. The second accused specifically alleged this illegality in his bail plea, which the investigating officer did not dispute.

The court ordered each accused to furnish a bond of ₹200,000 with two sureties of the same amount.

Opposing the bail, the VACB officials said that the accused did not cooperate for the first three days and only began doing so after being confronted with electronic evidence. The department stressed that a large amount of electronic data still needs to be examined in the presence of the accused before their release, to prevent them from coordinating their responses.