In a setback to former Kerala Transport Minister and Left Front MLA Antony Raju, the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Nedumangadu, on Saturday found him guilty of forging and planting material evidence in the sensational evidence tampering case.
The verdict came 19 years after the charge sheet was filed against him after 13 years in the case registered in 1994.
The Court also convicted the co-accused, court clerk KS. Jose, for his role in the conspiracy. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced later. The duo has been found guilty under six sections of the IPC, including sections 465 (forgery) and 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), facing potential sentences ranging from ten years to life imprisonment.
The court found that the defendants were guilty of crimes such as breach of trust by government officials, conspiracy, destruction of evidence, fabrication of false evidence, violation of the law by a public servant, and forgery of a document.
The court noted that the prosecution had successfully established that Raju and Jose acted in concert to remove the undergarment submitted as a material object, tampered with it, and later returned it in a form that undermined the prosecution case.
The case dates back to 1990, when Australian national Andrew Salvatore Cervelli was arrested at the Thiruvananthapuram airport for allegedly attempting to smuggle 61.5 grams of contraband concealed in his underwear. Raju, then a young lawyer at the start of his political career, appeared as Cervelli’s counsel.
The trial court convicted Cervelli and sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment. However, the Kerala High Court acquitted Cervelli on appeal after finding that the underwear produced as evidence was too small to fit him, raising serious doubts about the prosecution’s case.
A few years later, after Cervelli returned to Australia, the investigating officer in the smuggling case approached the high court seeking a probe to find out if there was any evidence tampering. The investigating officer filed this plea based on certain information received from the Australian National Central Bureau.
This led to the registration of a criminal case in 1994 against Raju and a court clerk Jose. After 12 years, in 2006, the Assistant Commissioner of Police filed a charge sheet before the magistrate Court, Thiruvananthapuram, accusing Raju and Jose of criminal conspiracy, cheating, dishonestly inducing the delivery of property, and causing the disappearance of evidence.
Raju challenged the proceedings, arguing that the police lacked authority to investigate since the underwear was under court custody and action should have been initiated under Section 195(1)(b) of the Criminal Procedure Code. The Kerala High Court accepted this argument and quashed the proceedings.
However, the Supreme Court overturned the high court’s decision in November 2024, stating that the alleged actions struck the core of public trust in the judicial system. The apex court restored the trial court’s authority to proceed and directed that the long-pending case be completed within a year.