Antony Raju approaches Kerala HC to stay conviction

Kochi: Former minister Antony Raju has moved the high court seeking a stay on his conviction by the Nedumangad magistrate court in a case alleging that he tampered with evidence kept in court custody to benefit an accused in an NDPS case. He was later disqualified as an MLA following the conviction.The judicial first class magistrate court convicted and sentenced Raju in the property tampering case to three years' imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 10,000 on Jan 3. The three-year sentence triggered his disqualification as an MLA and barred him from contesting the next election under Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act. Accordingly, he filed an appeal before the sessions court, Thiruvananthapuram, challenging the verdict and sought a stay of the conviction as interim relief to prevent the disqualification from taking effect. Although the sessions court admitted the appeal for hearing, it declined to stay the conviction by an order dated Feb 17. Consequently, Raju approached the high court challenging the sessions court's order rejecting his interim plea. The case against Raju stems from the acquittal of an Australian national who was arrested at Thiruvananthapuram airport on April 4, 1990, for possessing narcotic drugs concealed in his underwear. The seized material objects were produced before the court and entrusted to the court clerk. Later, at the accused's request, his personal belongings were released. However, a key piece of evidence—the underwear in which the drugs were concealed— was also handed over by the clerk to Raju, who was then representing the accused, without a court order. A smaller piece of underwear was subsequently returned to the court, allegedly after being tampered with, which is said to have contributed to the acquittal of the accused. In his appeal, Raju argued that unless the conviction itself is stayed, his right to contest the upcoming assembly election would be jeopardised.