Drug seizure from Australian: Kerala HC quashes case against minister

The case dates back to 1990 when Raju was a junior lawyer representing an Australian citizen Andrew Salvatore Cervelli who was accused of smuggling drugs to India by concealing it in his inner wear. The cloth was produced as the key evidence when he was produced before the court

The Kerala high court on Friday quashed a case against state transport minister Antony Raju in connection with a three-decade-old evidence tampering charge related to a drug seizure, citing technical reasons.

The high court agreed to the technical contention of Kerala minister Antony Raju that the police have no right to file a case against him as the evidence concerned was in the custody of the court. (Wikimedia Commons)

Though the first information report (FIR) was quashed on technical grounds, single bench of justice Ziyad Rehman clarified that the present order will not bar on prosecution as per the provisions of the Section 195(1) B (offences against public justice) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The court also directed the registry to take necessary action and observed that the allegations raised were serious.

The court agreed to the technical contention of the minister that the police have no right to file a case against him as the evidence concerned was in the custody of the court. The court viewed that the case was quashed on technical grounds but relevant court authorities could take necessary action. Reacting to the verdict, the state minister said “he was really relieved”.

“Though the court interfered in the proceedings for technical reasons, it cannot be ignored that the allegations raised are serious in nature. The materials placed before the court reveal allegations of such nature that interfere with the judicial functions and thereby, procuring the mechanisms of administering justice. Such acts required to be dealt with strict vigour and this court expects a positive follow-up action,” it observed.

The case dates back to 1990 when Raju was a junior lawyer representing an Australian citizen Andrew Salvatore Cervelli who was accused of smuggling drugs to India by concealing it in his inner wear. The cloth was produced as the key evidence when he was produced before the court.

In 1992, Thiruvananthapuram district court had sentenced Cervelli to 10 years rigorous imprisonment. But in 1993 the Kerala high court had acquitted him after his counsel argued that “the underwear in court custody, main evidence, was too small as the accused was stout and fat”. After his acquittal Cervelli left the country.

But the case took a dramatic turn in 1996 when Cervelli was arrested in connection with a murder case in Australia. During interrogation he told Australian agencies how his family bribed a court clerk and others in India “to tamper with evidence and get out of a serious drug case”. Later the crucial information was passed on to the Central Bureau of Investigation through the Interpol.

Though the case was re-opened in 2002 at the initiative of the high court it failed to make any headway and later it was dumped as unsolved case. In 2005 when T P Senkumar took over as the IG southern range he started re-investigation into it.

During investigation the court clerk (Jose K ) reportedly admitted that he had given the underwear, key evidence, to one of the lawyers of Cervelli in August 1990 and it was returned in December after obtaining some money. There were also entries in the register supporting his statement. Later the probe team found that the lawyer in question was Antony Raju. A youth leader of the Kerala Congress, Raju later left his lawyer profession to join politics.

During investigation, forensic officials found that the inner wear was cut and re-stitched to make it smaller. Later police had registered a cheating case against the court clerk and Antony Raju. The case was dragged again and many special leave petitions were also filed. In 2013, a charge sheet was formally filed against Raju and the court clerk but it got dragged again.