Former legislator Antony Raju, convicted in the1990 evidence tampering case, has filed an appeal before the Principal Sessions and District Court in Thiruvananthapuram seeking suspension of his sentence and conviction. The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-I, Nedumangad, had sentenced Raju to three years' imprisonment. Following the conviction, the former transport minister was disqualified as a member of the legislative assembly.

The case pertains to an Australian national, Andrew Salvatore Cervelli, who was arrested at the Thiruvananthapuram airport in 1990 for possession of 61.6 grams of charas. JFMC-I Judge Rubi Ismail found the first accused, K S Jose, a court clerk, and the second accused, Antony Raju, guilty of criminal conspiracy, causing disappearance of evidence, fabricating false evidence, criminal breach of trust, forgery, and offences committed with common intention.

The court, however, did not accept the prosecution's charges of cheating and forgery with the intent to cheat.

The case
Antony Raju, then a junior lawyer, represented the accused Cervelli. While a sessions court initially convicted Cervelli and sentenced him to ten years of imprisonment, the Kerala High Court acquitted him in 1991.

The acquittal was primarily based on the defence argument that the underwear produced as evidence was too small to fit the accused. During the appeal, the court observed a physical demonstration where the garment failed to fit Cervelli, leading the bench to note a strong suspicion of evidence tampering.

The subsequent investigation revealed that Antony Raju had allegedly conspired with a court clerk named K Jose to obtain the underwear from the court's material objects room. It was alleged that Raju took the garment, had it re-stitched to a smaller size, and returned it to the court four months later to ensure it would not fit his client during the High Court hearing.

The case gained further momentum after Interpol informed Indian authorities that Cervelli had confessed to the tampering while serving a sentence in an Australian prison for another crime. An FIR was registered in 1994, and a chargesheet was filed in 2014, accusing Raju of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and destruction of evidence.

Legal course
The legal proceedings faced several delays and technical challenges over three decades. In March 2023, the Kerala High Court quashed the case against Raju on the technical ground that the police lacked the authority to investigate evidence tampering that occurred within court custody, suggesting instead that the court itself should have initiated the complaint. However, in November 2024, the Supreme Court of India overturned this decision and restored the trial, ruling that the procedural bar did not apply and emphasising that interference with judicial processes strikes at the foundation of justice. The apex court directed that the trial be completed within one year.