Antony Raju suffers setback in evidence tampering case; no stay for sentence, cannot contest polls

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court rejected former minister Antony Raju’s plea seeking to stay his sentence in the evidence tampering case. The Nedumangad Magistrate Court had sentenced him to three years in prison for allegedly tampering with evidence-specifically, an undergarment leading to the acquittal of an Australian citizen, accused in a drug trafficking case.

In his appeal, he requested that the conviction be stayed, but the Thiruvananthapuram District Sessions Court rejected the plea. He then approached the high court. His plea pointed that his conviction led to disqualification as an MLA and barred him from contesting elections. With the high court rejecting his plea, Antony Raju will not be able to contest the assembly polls. Antony Raju was also a lawyer of the foreign national.

The Australian citizen was arrested at Thiruvananthapuram airport with drugs hidden in his undergarment. The allegation is that the undergarment, which was a key piece of evidence, was tampered with.

The case is that he tampered with evidence to save the Australian citizen named Andrew Salvador Servalias, who was arrested at the airport with 60 grams of hashish on April 4, 1990. Antony Raju, then a lawyer at the Vanchiyoor court, along with his senior advocate Seline Wilfred, took up the case.

The Vanchiyoor court sentenced the accused to ten years in prison. However, the high court later acquitted Andrew, accepting the defence argument that the undergarment was not his.

Later, while serving sentence in Australia in another case, Andrew reportedly revealed to a fellow inmate that he had escaped conviction by tampering with the evidence. He then passed the information to the Australian police.

Interpol then informed the CBI, which in turn alerted the Kerala Police. A fresh investigation was conducted in the case after circle inspector K K Jayamohan, the investigating officer approached the high court. The first accused is clerk Jose who handed over the evidence to Antony Raju.