New Delhi, April 27: The Supreme Court has dismissed the petition of former Kerala minister Antony Raju, who sought a stay on his conviction in a high-profile evidence tampering case from 1990.
A bench comprising Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma refused to intervene in the Kerala High Court’s order, which had denied a stay on his sentence. As a result, the conviction handed down by the trial court and upheld by the appellate court remains in effect.
Antony Raju, the sole legislator from the Janadhipaty Kerala Congress party within the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), is no longer a member of the assembly since January 2026. He was sentenced to three years in prison by the Nedumangad Judicial First Class Magistrate Court.
The case dates back to 1990 when Australian citizen Andrew Salvatore Cervelli was arrested at Thiruvananthapuram Airport with 61.5 grams of narcotics concealed in his undergarments. At that time, a young lawyer, Antony Raju, represented Cervelli. The lower court convicted Cervelli, but the Kerala High Court later acquitted him, citing that the piece of undergarment presented as evidence was too small, casting serious doubt on the prosecution’s case.
Subsequent investigations, based on information from Australian authorities, revealed allegations of tampering with physical evidence during court custody.
Ultimately, in 1994, a criminal case was filed against Raju and a court clerk, leading to a lengthy investigation and the filing of charges in 2006.
In November 2024, the Supreme Court overturned the Kerala High Court’s order that had dismissed the criminal proceedings on technical grounds. The court directed the prosecution to resume and complete the trial within a year.
Raju was found guilty of criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence, fabrication of false evidence, and related offenses. Although the session court temporarily stayed the sentence, the conviction was upheld.
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