Excess liquor possession case: Kerala HC denies interim bail to Reporter TV's Anto Augustine

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Friday denied interim bail to Reporter Broadcasting Company Managing Director Anto Augustine, who was arrested after 65 litres of liquor and wine were seized from his property in Wayanad.

Justice Kauser Edappagath deferred detailed arguments on the bail plea until Tuesday. The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-I in Sulthan Bathery had rejected his bail plea earlier on Friday.

During the initial afternoon hearing, the court appeared inclined to grant interim relief and questioned the state’s reliance on panchayat tax receipts, observing that payment of building tax by itself does not establish Augustine's ownership of the house from where excess liquor was seized. The bench also noted that official mutation records may take time to be updated following a property transaction and directed the prosecution to produce concrete material by 4 pm.

When the matter resumed at 4 pm, Director General of Prosecution T Asaf Ali appeared for the State and opposed interim release. The prosecution informed the court that the Excise Department had already sought Augustine’s custody and that the Sulthan Bathery Magistrate Court had issued a production warrant for Saturday. Citing the pending custody plea and production warrant, the High Court directed the prosecution to place all supporting documents on record and ordered Augustine to remain in judicial custody until the next hearing on Tuesday.

Augustine was taken into custody from the Reporter TV office in Kalamassery on Thursday morning and remanded in judicial custody until September 30.

The raid at his residence in Muttil South Village, Wayanad, was conducted by a police Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing alleged multi-crore financial fraud linked to the visit of Lionel Messi and the Argentina national football team to Kerala, for which Augustine’s company acted as a commercial partner. After 65 litres of liquor was recovered from the house, the Excise Department registered a case under Sections 55(a), 55(i) and 58 of the Kerala Abkari Act and arrested Augustine.

Property sold under SARFAESI
In the bail petition filed through Advocates M P Shameem Ahamed and Muhammed Firdouz A V, Augustine argued that he had no ownership, possession or control over the property.

He submitted that Building No. 10/603, “Moongananiyil Veedu”, on 14.67 Ares, was mortgaged to the State Bank of India (SBI) and auctioned under the SARFAESI Act, 2002. It was purchased in a public e-auction on June 30, 2022, by Lilly Jose for ₹2,00,10,000.

“A Building Certificate is a fiscal record maintained for the purpose of levy of property tax. It is not a document of title and is not evidence of possession. Panchayat registers continue to reflect the name of the person originally assessed until mutation is effected at the instance of the transferee, and the omission of a purchaser to apply for mutation cannot fasten criminal liability upon a person who has long since been divested of the property by operation of law,” the petition stated.

Augustine said he lives at Joy Alukkas Golden Tower, Vazhakkala, Ernakulam, with his wife, a practising medical doctor, and their three minor children. The prosecution’s Crime and Occurrence Report allegedly recorded that Augustine was not present during the raid; the defence argued that this displaces conscious possession.

Challenge to Abkari charges
The petition challenged Sections 55(a), 55(i) and 58 of the Abkari Act, alleging they were mechanically invoked to impose stringent bail restrictions under Section 41A. The defence said Section 55(i) concerns sale or storage for sale, but the prosecution documents contain no allegation of sale.

“The word ‘sale’ does not occur anywhere in the Crime and Occurrence Report, in the seizure mahazar, or in any document relied upon by the prosecution. No customer, no consideration, no transaction and no instrument of sale is spoken to,” the plea stated.

It argued that possession of genuine, duty-paid liquor beyond the permissible quantity would violate the Foreign Liquor Rules and attract Section 63 of the Abkari Act, a bailable offence.

Augustine claimed that bottles in the seized items, described as “illicit liquor”, bore labels of major brands like Chivas Regal, Johnnie Walker Black Label, Monkey Shoulder and Silver Patrón Tequila; corresponding chemical samples were described as “Foreign Made Foreign Liquor”.

The petition alleged that batch numbers, holographic excise stamps and bottle seals were not recorded in the mahazar and that no chemical laboratory analysis was conducted before the stock was labelled illicit. It also pointed to a discrepancy involving 12.75 litres: the arrest memo allegedly described it as “homemade wine”, while the seizure mahazar called it illicit liquor.

Search and arrest procedure questioned
The defence alleged violations of Section 103 of the BNSS, saying no advance notice was given before the closed private residence was searched. Police and revenue officials present before the Excise team arrived allegedly did not sign the seizure mahazar.

It alleged non-compliance with Sections 47 and 48 of the BNSS, stating that arrest intimation was sent through social media messaging to an office employee instead of directly to Augustine’s family.

The raid occurred at 2.45 pm on September 16, while the FIR was registered at 4.26 am on September 17, shortly before Augustine’s arrest in Kochi at 5 am.

41 pending cases disputed
The petition challenged the lower court’s reference to 41 pending cases against Augustine. The defence said all 41 cases registered at Meenangadi Police Station originated from a single crime (No. 281/2021), which was split into 40 separate crimes based on identical facts. Augustine is on bail in all those matters, with no reported breach of bail conditions.

“Antecedents cannot be counted arithmetically. A single transaction, multiplied into a number of crime numbers, cannot be permitted to masquerade as a history of repeat offending so as to deny liberty in an unconnected case,” the plea stated.

The plea further argued that continued custody serves no investigative purpose, as the investigation is primarily documentary, all seized articles are in custody, and samples have been submitted before the court. Augustine has offered to comply with stringent bail conditions, including surrendering his passport.