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Supreme Court denies relief to ex-Kerala minister Antony Raju in 1990 NDPS case
Antony Raju, who was then a practising lawyer and had appeared for the Australian national, was named an accused, along with a court employee, in the 1990 NDPS case.
In November 2024, the Supreme Court dismissed Raju’s appeal, revived the criminal case against him, and directed the trial court to complete the trial within a year. File Photo
The Supreme Court Monday refused to suspend the conviction of former Kerala minister Antony Raju in a 1990 narcotics case involving evidence tampering, in which he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and S C Sharma dismissed his appeal against a Kerala High Court order that had declined to grant him relief.
Antony Raju, an MLA from the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, previously served as a minister in the state’s ruling Left Democratic Front.
The case dates back to 1990, when the police arrested an Australian national under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act after drugs were allegedly found concealed in his underwear. A trial court sentenced the Australian citizen to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. However, the Kerala High Court later acquitted him, noting that the underwear did not fit him.
However, the High Court noted that the evidence may have been tampered with, prompting a vigilance inquiry, after which an FIR was registered in 1994. Antony Raju, who was then a practising lawyer and had appeared for the Australian national, was named as an accused along with a court employee.
Raju challenged this before the high court, which quashed the FIR on the grounds that cognisance cannot be taken on a police chargesheet in a case involving the fabrication of evidence in a court proceeding.
The high court, however, asked its registry to take appropriate action to pursue the complaint under the relevant provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Two appeals were filed against this before the Supreme Court — one by a third party challenging the acquittal and the other by Raju challenging the high court’s direction.
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In November 2024, the Supreme Court dismissed Raju’s appeal, revived the criminal case against him, and directed the trial court to complete the trial within a year. In January 2026, the trial court convicted him and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment.
Following the conviction, Antony Raju was disqualified as an MLA and became ineligible to contest the 2026 Kerala Assembly elections. While the trial court suspended his sentence, it refused to stay the conviction. He later approached the High Court but did not get relief, after which he moved the Supreme Court.
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