Kerala minister Antony Raju and the curious case of the switched underwear that’s haunting him

Any adverse remarks by the high court could create a situation that may compel the minister to resign, dealing another blow to the ruling LDF, which lost Minister of Fisheries and Culture Saji Cheriyan just last month after he made controversial comments on the Indian constitution.

Most constituents of the LDF coalition have warned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that the case against the minister is strong, and the ruling coalition can in no way justify his actions. They feel the case will receive huge public attention in the coming days, further denting the government’s image.

Origin of the case and its Australia connection

The origin of the case can be traced to 4 April, 1990, when an Australian citizen, Andrew Salvatore Cervelli, was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act after he was arrested at Thiruvananthapuram airport with 61.5g of hashish concealed in his underwear.

When the case came to court, his lawyer was none other than Antony Raju, then practising in the Thiruvananthapuram District Court.

It seemed like an open and shut case and, on 2 August, 1990, the fast-track trial court found Salvatore guilty and sentenced him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹1 lakh. Among the pieces of evidence submitted in court was the Australian’s underwear, in which he was said to have smuggled the hashish.

Salvatore, however, appealed the verdict in the Kerala High Court soon after.

In his appeal, Salvatore urged the court to revisit the material evidence submitted in the lower court, especially the underwear he was wearing when he was arrested.

When the underwear was called for and examined, it turned out to be too tiny to have been worn by Salvatore, and did not have any pockets in which the hashish could have been kept.

The prosecution’s case collapsed and the court acquitted Salvatore in February 1991. By the first week of March, he had left India.

How the case curiously resurfaced

In 1996, the police in Australia’s Victoria state arrested two people in connection with murder of one Ismet Shygri Balla. One of them was Andrew Salvatore.

While in custody at the Melbourne Remand Centre, Salvatore allegedly boasted to his co-accused, Wesley John Paul, about how he escaped a jail term in India — and that he did so by paying off a court clerk and a lawyer to tamper with the evidence.

This bit of information reached Victoria Police officials and they passed it on to Interpol, which in turn alerted the CBI in New Delhi.

It is from the CBI that the Kerala Police received information about the alleged evidence tampering and launched its own investigation into the matter.

The underwear switcheroo

The police approached the Kerala High court and accused Raju of tampering with the evidence in the Salvatore case, helping him to escape punishment. The court ordered a thorough investigation.

The investigation found that after Salvatore was convicted by the trial court, his lawyer Raju, on 9 August, 1990, obtained an order for the release and return of all his personal items. Along with other items, he also collected the underwear from the court clerk.

According to the investigators, Raju subsequently returned the underwear to the court clerk on 5 December, 1990, saying it was crucial material evidence in the drug case.

They alleged that Raju switched the underwear. And it was this underwear that Salvatore insisted on being re-examined, leading to his acquittal.

Minister Antony Raju (left) with cabinet colleagues V Sivankutty and GR Anil. (South First)

It still took the police 10 years to arraign Raju, in 2006, as an accused in the tampering of evidence case. Consequently, the LDF denied him a seat in the Assembly election held that year.

According to the chargesheet filed in 2006 with the Nedumangad court, the first accused is a member of the court staff, KV Jose, and the second accused is Raju.

They were charged with cheating (Section 420), conspiracy (Section 120-B), dishonestly inducing delivery of property/causing disappearance of evidence of offence (Section 201), the threat of injury to induce a person to refrain from applying for protection to a public servant (Section 190), and public servant disobeying direction of law with the intent to save a person from punishment or property from forfeiture (Section 217) of the Indian Penal Code.

The case has, however, languished in the lower court all these years.

Finally, some movement

But with the Kerala High Court intervening — on a petition filed by social worker George Vattukulam demanding an expedited trial — there is some movement.

Legal sources told South First that the magistrate court has listed the case for August 4 and is understood to have decided to put it on the fast track and complete the trial in three months. The sources added that summons have already been issued to some of the 29 witnesses in the case.

“The case shows two kinds of violations. The first is very serious: Cheating a court by tampering with the evidence. The other is the inordinate delay in conducting the trial,” B Kemal Pasha, a retired judge of the Kerala High Court, told South First.

“Raju’s influence as a powerful lawyer, politician and administrator might have caused both. He has been avoiding trial all these years and hiding the case details while occupying the post of a cabinet minister. He and the ruling front must think of the legal, constitutional and moral propriety of such a person occupying a high public office,” Pasha added.

On his part, Raju has said he could not comment on the merits of the case as it is pending trial.

But with the opposition gearing up to highlight the case and stressing the minister has no moral right to continue in office, there are uncomfortable days ahead for Raju as well as the LDF government in Kerala.