Thiruvananthapuram, 5/1 : Antony Raju, a former Kerala minister and sitting Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency, has been officially disqualified following his conviction and three-year imprisonment sentence in a 35-year-old drug seizure case involving evidence tampering. The Kerala Legislature Secretariat issued the notification on Monday, January 5, 2026, confirming his removal from the assembly effective January 3, 2026, the date of his conviction.
The Nedumangad Judicial First Class Magistrate-I Court on Saturday, January 3, 2026, found Raju guilty of conspiring to tamper with material evidence in a 1990 narcotics case. He was sentenced to three years of simple imprisonment, along with fines, for offenses under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including criminal conspiracy (120B), causing disappearance of evidence (201), and fabricating false evidence (193). This conviction automatically triggers his disqualification as an MLA under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which states that any legislator sentenced to two years or more in prison stands disqualified.
The complex case dates back to April 1990 when an Australian national, Andrew Salvatore Cervelli, was arrested at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport with 61.5 grams of hashish concealed in his underwear. Raju, then a junior lawyer, represented Cervelli. While a sessions court initially convicted Cervelli, he was later acquitted by the Kerala High Court in 1991, primarily based on the defense argument that the undergarment presented as evidence was too small to fit him. A subsequent vigilance inquiry and police investigation revealed a conspiracy to tamper with this crucial piece of evidence.
Investigations alleged that Raju, along with former court clerk K.S. Jose, conspired to remove the underwear from court custody, alter its size, and then return it to court records before the High Court hearing. An FIR was registered against them in 1994, with a chargesheet filed in 2006. The legal battle saw multiple twists, including the Kerala High Court quashing proceedings on technical grounds in 2023, only for the Supreme Court to overturn that decision in November 2024 and direct the trial court to complete proceedings within a year.
Co-accused K.S. Jose was also convicted and sentenced to three years of imprisonment. Despite the conviction, Antony Raju has been granted one-month bail by the court to allow him to appeal the verdict in a higher court. Legal experts indicate that the disqualification will remain in effect unless the conviction itself is overturned. As a result of this ruling, the Thiruvananthapuram Assembly constituency seat is now vacant, though no immediate by-election is expected as state assembly elections are scheduled in a few months. Raju, a leader of the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, an ally of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), has consistently maintained that the case is politically motivated.
#AntonyRaju #KeralaPolitics #MLADisqualification #EvidenceTampering #DrugCase #Thiruvananthapuram #KeralaNews #IndianJustice
