One of the High Court Judges cited in the judicial bribery scandal, Justice Essel Mensah, has denied taking a bribe of GHC5, 000 to grant bail to a murder suspect.

According to him, although he had been approached with the bribe money by undercover journalists, he rejected it.

“Anas Aremeyaw Anas for obvious reasons known to himself deleted the portion that showed him taking his money back from the edited video footage”, he said in a 25-point response to the Disciplinary Committee of the Judicial Council.

The committee, set up by Chief Justice, Georgina Wood, is tasked with probing allegations of bribery against 11 other High Court Judges.

According to Justice Essel Mensah the fact that the murder suspect is still in police custody should be proof that he did not take the bribe money.

“Anas did not influence me, which is why the accused person, Mohammed Nii Baah, is still in custody”, he said.

According to the Human Rights Court Judge a Judicial Service staff, Gabriel Achana, approached him in January this year demanding legal advice for his cousins who have had a brush with the law.

But Justice Essel Mensah said as discussions were ongoing he lost interest and asked that the Judicial Service staff and his alleged cousins discontinue the talks.

The statement submitted by lawyers for the High Court Judge to the Disciplinary Committee notes Justice Essel Mensah’s “unwillingness to accept money was clearly manifested in his demeanor when we watched the edited video footage of the incident.

“It is also instructive to pin out that in furtherance of our client’s unwillingness to accept any money, he refused to touch compelling Gabriel to keep the money next to himself”.

The embattled judge said since the January incident, he has not heard from Anas or any of his Tiger Eye PI team.