A former Public Relations Officer at the Strategic Framework for Change and Coordination Office, has pleaded not guilty in the Suva High Court this morning for bribery charges laid by FICAC on him in September of 2012.

Rudra Maharaj, was charged under section 5 (2) (a) of the Prevention of Bribery Promulgation.

In this morning's court appearance before Justice Janaka Bandara, Maharaj's lawyer, Iqbal Khan, proceeded with an application for bail variation by consent that the accused reports once a month at the same time that was stated in the earlier bail condition.

At this, FICAC Prosecutor, Rashmi Aslam told the Court that all disclosures with information has been served to Defense and that Prosecution does not have any objection to the bail variation.

After Maharaj took his “not guilty” plea, Justice Bandara granted his application for bail variation with accused now to report on every last Saturday of the month at Nakasi Police Post.

The matter has been adjourned to 23 January, 2014 to finalize pre-trial conference matters.