How do I continue my trial or should I jump bail?

1 year ago

Posting on behalf of a friend.
I have a criminal case in IPC 342,504,323,376,506,420 etc going on in Bangalore District Court. I am on bail since December 2020. I am innocent and have been fixed in this case because of revelry with a powerful woman who was my coworker. I am living in Maharashtra for the last two years and have got married earlier this year.

The case trial has started recently. It did not start earlier because of Covid. The judge is giving a date once in every 15 days since the trial has started. The evidence has started just two weeks back. Now the court had called the first witness on the last date but she did not appear. So the court has asked the police to ensure that she appears on the next date.

My lawyer seems to be good at his work but charges INR 2000 on each date for being present in court though nothing was done on each of these dates except that the next date was given. There were 29 such dates in the last two years and till date I have paid him INR 2000 for 23 dates. i.e. INR 46,000 I have also paid him an additional INR 30,000 when he indicated that the trial will start in April 2020 but it couldn’t start back then because of Covid.

I cannot speak and understand Kannada but papers related to my case are in Kannada and are with my lawyer. He has not given me any details and has said that he cannot comment much and tell us anything about our chances of winning the case until the woman comes on the stand in court and gives her statement.

I am doing a blue-collar job and get paid on daily wages. I also have a responsibility towards my Mother, Widowed Sister & her child as well as my wife and our pet dog. Unfortunately, I do not have the financial capacity to pay lawyer fees and travel to Bangalore two to three times a month for this case. According to my lawyer, I have to appear on most dates as the trial has begun.

What is the best way to come out of this situation? Can I simply jump the bail, change my phone number and never visit Karnataka again? Can I ask for a government lawyer? Will the government lawyer be able to win the case for me as there is no hard evidence except a few made-up ones? Can I contact any NGOs that work for men? Is that expensive too? Am I paying a lot to my lawyer or changing a lawyer will be less expensive?