Evidence tampering case: Kerala HC seeks report on delay in trial of minister

The case against Raju, who is a leader of Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, a CPI(M) ally, pertains to the tampering of evidence (material object) in a drug seizure case reported in 1990 when he had been practising as a lawyer in the state capital. Although the chargesheet had been submitted in the magistrate court in 2013, the case has been pending trial since then.

The case against the minister stemmed from the arrest of Australian citizen, Andrew Salvatore Cervelli, at Thiruvananthapuram airport on April 9, 1990 on charges of carrying 61.5 grams of hashish. He had allegedly kept the hashish in a packet in his underwear. The prosecution had produced the innerwear as part of the evidence against the accused. Later, a trial court in Thiruvananthapuram sentenced the Australian citizen to ten years of rigorous imprisonment.

The convict appealed to the high court which, in 1993, acquitted him after his counsel proved in the court that the innerwear, which was produced as evidence by the prosecution, was too small for the accused. As the evidence was prima facie found tampered, the police probed into how the size of the underwear worn by the accused person decreased to such an extent to establish in the high court that the seized object was not worn by him.

The state forensic sciences laboratory then found that the underwear had been cut and re-stitched to make it small. The police probe showed that Raju, who had appeared for the accused, had received the underwear from the magistrate court’s custody with the court clerk’s complicity and returned it four months later before the accused moved the high court.

Based on the police report, the district court in Thiruvananthapuram ordered that a case be registered against Raju and court clerk K Jose in connection with the tampering of the material evidence.

Although the police had submitted the chargesheet in a magistrate court in 2013, the case was deferred 22 times since then. Raju never appeared before the court in any of the hearings. While contesting the Assembly elections in 2021, Raju, in his affidavit before the Election Commission, had mentioned this pending case.

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