A petition seeking to expedite trial in the criminal case in which Transport Minister Antony Raju was arraigned as an accused has been posted for July 27.
The petition was moved by George Vattukulam, a public interest litigant, before the Kerala High Court.
The petitioner submitted that the trial in the case, which was charge-sheeted 16 years ago, had not started. The case against Mr. Raju was that he had conspired with a clerk of the property section of the Thiruvananthapuram court and replaced an undergarment, a material object in a drug trafficking case booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act involving an Australian citizen, Andrew Salvatore, and secured the release of the accused from the High Court.
The accused have been charged with the offences of conspiracy (Section 120 (B)), cheating (Section 420), dishonestly inducing delivery of property causing disappearance of evidence of offence (Section 201), threat of injury to induce a person to refrain from applying for protection to public servant (Section 190), and a public servant disobeying direction of law with the intent to save a person from punishment or property from forfeiture (Section 217) of the Indian Penal Code.
