Antony Raju MLA, a former minister in the CPM-led Left Democratic Front and a leader of Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, has been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and fined ₹10,000 by a First Class Judicial Magistrate Court in Nedumangad. The conviction results in his immediate disqualification from the Kerala Legislative Assembly, marking a major setback for the ruling LDF.
The verdict pertains to a 1990 criminal case in which Raju, then a practising lawyer, was found guilty of infiltrating the judicial process, tampering with crucial material evidence, and facilitating a favourable verdict for a foreign national accused in a narcotics case.
The case dates back more than 35 years. On April 4, 1990, Australian citizen Andrew Salvador Sarvalia was taken into custody at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport after he was found carrying 61 grams of hashish, a drug, concealed in his innerwear.
Advocate Celin Wilfred appeared for the accused, with Antony Raju serving as her junior counsel. Sarvalia was initially sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment and fined Rs 1 lakh. He subsequently moved an appeal before a higher court.
During this period, a relative of the accused arrived in Thiruvananthapuram. Antony Raju, in his capacity as the accused’s lawyer, filed a petition seeking custody of the personal effects of the accused. Through this process, he managed to obtain the innerwear, crucial material evidence in the narcotics case, with the assistance of Jose, a court clerk, who later emerged as his accomplice in the extrajudicial act.
In what the court described as a grave abuse of legal practice, the innerwear was cut to reduce its size and stitched again. As a result, it no longer fit the accused. When the appeal came up for hearing, the altered evidence played a decisive role, leading to the acquittal of the accused on the ground that the innerwear produced in court did not belong to him.
The matter came to light later when the same accused was jailed in another case. During his imprisonment, he disclosed to a co-prisoner how his lawyer had successfully manipulated the evidence to secure his acquittal. This information eventually reached the authorities, leading to the registration of a police case in 1994. However, the police took 13 years to file the charge sheet.
The final hearing in the Nedumangad court took place only after the Supreme Court directed that the long-pending case be concluded within one year.
Following the conviction, Antony Raju stands immediately disqualified as an MLA under Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act. The provision mandates that a person convicted of such an offence is disqualified from the date of conviction and remains disqualified for six years after release from imprisonment.
The prosecution has announced its decision to file an appeal seeking a more rigorous sentence, stating that the punishment awarded is inadequate. Antony Raju has also filed an appeal challenging the conviction.
The Antony Raju episode has dealt a significant blow to the CPM-led Left Democratic Front, headed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The ruling front is already facing sustained criticism over the Sabarimala gold loot, multiple cooperative bank scams, corruption allegations, allegations of nepotism, authoritarian governance, and what critics describe as a pattern of administrative excesses.
