Congress’s Raju P. Nair alleges blackmail bid behind Anto Augustine’s revelations on Keralam CM’s ‘marriage papers’

Congress leader Raju P. Nair expressed suspicion on Saturday that the V.D. Satheesan-led Keralam government may have been targeted in a blackmailer attempt, following allegations that Chief Minister Anto Augustine had entered into a second marriage while his existing marriage was still subsisting. Nair informed the Kalamassery police, who are investigating the complaint he filed, of his doubts regarding the matter.

He made the disclosure while testifying before the police in the case registered against Augustine and two unidentified individuals. Nair questioned the context in which Augustine made the revelation about two people providing forged documents regarding Satheesan's second marriage. According to Nair, if the documents were indeed fabricated, Augustine should have reported the matter to the police instead of using it as a defense against the ongoing investigation.

Nair suggested it was possible that Augustine's revelation was part of a pressure tactic to blackmail the government, and he called for an investigation into who might have been behind the suspected conspiracy. The FIR registered by the Cybercrime Police in Thiruvananthapuram, based on Nair's complaint, was later transferred to the Kalamassery police, as the alleged location of the incident according to Augustine was Kalamassery.

The FIR includes provisions from Sections 336(4), 337, 61(2), 356(3), 340(2), and 339 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, which pertain to forgeries intended to harm reputation, forging public records, criminal conspiracy, defamation, using a forged document as genuine, and possession of a forged public document, knowing it to be forged.