Underwear evidence tampering case: Supreme Court slams Kerala for not filing reply to plea by MLA Antony Raju

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took exception to the Kerala government not filing its reply to a plea by Kerala MLA Antony Raju against the initiation of fresh criminal proceedings in the infamous underwear evidence tampering case. .A bench of Justices CT Ravikumar and Rajesh Bindal however, eventually gave time to the Kerala government to file its counter-affidavit."This is a serious matter, this can erode the faith of the people in the institution if the allegations go one way," Justice Ravikumar observed during today's hearing. "Why have you not replied? Is it because you are hand-in-glove with the accused? What counter you will file now, all facts are there on record," Justice Bindal added..Raju is the leader of the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress party which is part of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) coalition in Kerala. He was also Kerala's Transport Minister until a cabinet reshuffle last year. .The case against Raju stems from an incident that took place around 33 years ago when he had not yet made his foray into serious politics and was a young lawyer practicing before courts in Kerala.An Australian man named Andrew Salvatore Cervelli had been arrested at the Thiruvananthapuram airport for allegedly smuggling 61.5 grams of charas by concealing it in his underwear.Raju represented Cervelli first before the trial court which eventually convicted and sentenced the Australian man to 10 years imprisonment.The case, however, took an odd turn when it reached the High Court on an appeal by Cervelli.The underwear in which the drugs were allegedly smuggled was, at this stage, found to have been way too small in size to fit Cervelli. This also led to his acquittal from the case..The curious case of shrunken underwear and Kerala Minister.A few years later, after Cervelli returned to his home country, the investigating officer in the smuggling case approached the Kerala High Court seeking a probe to find out if there was any evidence tampering.The investigating officer filed this plea based on certain information received from the Australian National Central Bureau, A criminal complaint was then registered against Raju and a court clerk in 1994. After 12 more years, in 2006, the Assistant Commissioner of Police filed a charge sheet before the magistrate court.The High Court, however, quashed trial court proceedings on a technical ground in March last year. Pertinently, the High Court 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. The High Court went one step further and ordered its Registry itself to initiate proceedings, paving the way for the trial court at Thiruvananthapuram to restart criminal proceedings against Raju..Why shrunken underwear evidence may continue to haunt Kerala Transport Minister Antony Raju.Raju then moved the top court for relief, through advocate Deepak Prakash, in light of a Thiruvananthapuram court initiating proceedings against him in the case..In July 2023, the Supreme Court stayed the fresh proceedings initiated against Raju and sought the State government's response in the matter.