On Wednesday, the Supreme Court reinstated criminal proceedings in a trial court against Kerala MLA Antony Raju for suspected evidence tampering in a 1990 drug trafficking case.
The lawsuit against the former transport minister, a representative of the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, a party affiliated with the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), was dismissed by the Kerala High Court in March last year on technical grounds.
Raju was the junior lawyer for the accused, an Australian citizen identified as Andrew Salvatore, who was arrested from the Thiruvananthapuram international airport with 61.5 grams of narcotics and the prosecution produced an underwear as part of the evidence against him saying the contraband was smuggled in that. He was sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.
However, the high court acquitted him in 1993 after his counsel proved that the underwear did not fit the accused.
A police probe later showed that Raju, who was a junior lawyer in the case, received the underwear from the trial court and returned it four months later after making some alterations to it, before the accused moved the high court.
Following this, a district court had ordered a case to be registered against Raju and court clerk, K Jose, who was in-charge of keeping custody of the evidence.
Raju challenged the case against him before the Kerala high court which allowed his appeal in March last year. The high court, however, clarified that its order will not restrain the state to initiate fresh proceedings against Raju.
Dealing with an appeal filed by journalist MR Ajayan challenging the quashing of the case against Raju, bench of justices CT Ravikumar and Sanjay Karol said, “The alleged act is a glaring occurrence where the process of criminal prosecution stands interfered with, impugning upon the sanctity of judicial proceedings, resulting in a travesty of justice.”
The court restored the order of the judicial magistrate of Nedumangad in Thiruvananthapuram taking cognizance of the chargesheet against Raju and directed him to appear before the trial court on December 20. As the case has remained pending before the court for nearly three decades, the trial was directed to be completed within one year.
Taking serious exception to the allegations against Raju of altering the evidence in collusion with the court official, the bench said, “Such actions not only erode public trust in the judicial system but compromise the principles of the rule of law and fairness, which are essential for the justice delivery system.”
The court noted the “peculiar” circumstances of the present case where the evidence was taken out of judicial custody by the accused without obtaining any order of release from the court and thereafter tinkering with the same before substituting it with the original evidence.
Following the court order, Raju said, “I am confident that I will have the final victory. Many expected the SC to order a CBI inquiry into this case. That has not happened. Law will take its own course.”
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Source: HT
