Underwear evidence tampering case: Supreme Court stays fresh proceedings against Kerala Minister Antony Raju

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed fresh proceedings initiated against Kerala Transport Minister Antony Raju in the underwear evidence-tampering case pending against him..A Bench of Justices CT Ravikumar and PV Sanjay Kumar also issued notice to the State of Kerala in the matter.Raju is the leader of the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress party, which is part of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) coalition in Kerala. .The Court was hearing Raju's appeal against a Kerala High Court order passed in March this year.The High Court had, while quashing the proceedings in the evidence tampering case against Raju, left open the initiation of fresh action and prosecution against him for falsifying evidence.The High Court had also directed its registry itself to initiate such proceedings, calling for expedient action even as the incidents in question happened over three decades ago..The case originated 33 years ago when an Australian man named Andrew Salvatore Cervelli was arrested at the Thiruvananthapuram airport for allegedly smuggling 61.5 grams of charas by concealing it in his underwear.At the time, Raju had not yet made his foray into serious politics, and was a young lawyer practicing before courts in Kerala.Raju represented Cervelli first before the trial court, which convicted and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment. When he moved the High Court in appeal, the underwear in question was found to have been way too small to fit Cervelli, leading to his acquittal.A few years after Cervelli returned to his home country, based on information received from the Australian National Central Bureau, the investigating officer in the smuggling case approached the High Court seeking a probe to find out if there was any evidence tampering..A criminal complaint was registered against Raju and a court clerk in 1994 and after 12 years, in 2006, the Assistant Commissioner of Police filed a charge sheet before the magistrate court.The High Court quashed proceedings, reasoning that for the offence in question, the courts below could not have taken cognisance based on a police report.However, the High Court had clarified that its order would not be a bar on pursuing prosecution as per the provisions of Section 195(1)(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure..Raju then moved the top court, through Advocate Deepak Prakash, in light of a Thiruvananthapuram court initiating proceedings against him in the case recently.The Supreme Court today was also hearing a plea filed by Advocate MR Aijayan assailing the Kerala High Court order in question. The top court did not comment on the lawyer's locus in the case, but gave liberty to the accused to file objections in this regard..Senior Advocate R Basant appeared for Raju. Senior Advocate S Nagamuthu appeared for Aijayan..Why shrunken underwear evidence may continue to haunt Kerala Transport Minister Antony Raju.[Read order]