[Underwear evidence tampering case] Kerala High Court seeks status report on trial against Minister Antony Raju

The Kerala High Court on Friday called for a report on the status of the trial against State Transport Minister Antony Raju in a case of alleged evidence tampering. [George Vattukulam v State of Kerala].Justice Ziyad Rahman AA deemed it fit to decide on maintainability of the plea seeking expedited trial after calling for a status report from the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Nedumangad in the trial that has been pending for many years.In the meantime, the Court directed the High Court Registry to get a report from the magistrate court after which it will consider if the petitioner, a third party, has any locus standi to move such a plea before the High Court..The particulars of the case dates back to 1990 when Raju was a junior lawyer representing an Australian man, Andrew Salvatore Cervelli, who was accused of smuggling hashish to India by concealing it in his underwear.When Cervelli approached the High Court in appeal against his conviction by a trial court over 30 years ago, the underwear in question was found to have mysteriously shrunk in size, leading the High Court to acquit Cervelli of all charges.A few years later, the investigating officer in the smuggling case, approached the High Court seeking a probe into the alleged evidence tampering. Subsequently, police in Thiruvananthapuram registered a case against Antony Raju and a court clerk.Even though Raju was chargesheeted in 2006, the trial did not begin until 2014. Coincidentally, Raju was standing as a candidate in the assembly polls which were scheduled to be held just a month later.Given the short attention span of the public and the media, the case was all but forgotten until a earlier this month, when the Magistrate Court ordered the police to produce all the files relevant to the now 16-year-old case, which had its genesis in the 32-year-old smuggling case.The chargesheet names Raju and court clerk Jose, who are accused of having committed offences such as conspiracy, cheating, destruction of evidence, fabrication of evidence, breach of public faith, among others.Raju is currently the State Transport Minister and the leader of the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress party, which is part of the ruling Left Democratic Front coalition.In the wake of the public furore about the unique case and the opposition's attempts to weaponize the same, the Kerala High Court Registry had recently sought a report on the delay in the trial..Later, a petitioner approached the Kerala High Court invoking its jurisdiction under Article 227 of the Constitution, seeking orders under Section 483 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for expediting the investigation and trial. The petitioner sought a court-ordered enquiry into the undue delay in the trial, contending that the public has a right to know about any fraudulent activities that a sitting minister may have been involved in..When the matter was taken up today, the High Court directed the Magistrate Court to submit a status report on the trial.The case is currently listed before the magistrate court for consideration on August 4.