Augustine was arrested a day after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kerala Police searched his offices and residences.
The search was conducted as part of a probe into alleged financial fraud in connection with a failed football event with the Argentinian national team and footballer Lionel Messi. Augustine’s Reporter Broadcasting Company was the main commercial sponsor of the event.
During a raid reportedly conducted at Augustine’s family home in Wayanad, police uncovered roughly 67 litres of foreign liquor and wine, which exceeds the legally permissible limit for personal possession.
The Excise Department arrested Augustine in the early hours of Thursday.
Augustine has been booked under Sections 55(i), 55(a) and 58 of the Kerala Abkari Act, which penalise illegal import, export, transport, sale, and illicit possession of liquor or intoxicating drugs.
In his bail plea, Augustine has now argued that the property from which the liquor was seized was sold during a bank auction in 2022, and was no longer in his possession.
“The petitioner has therefore had neither title to nor possession of the building for more than four years before the date of the alleged detection,” the bail plea filed before the High Court states.
The plea says that the trial court denied Augustine bail mainly on the premise that the property belonged to him, based on a building certificate issued by the local authority and by holding that a sale certificate in respect of the said property was not conclusive. Augustine has questioned this approach.
“A Building Certificate is a record maintained for the levy of property tax; it is neither a document of title nor evidence of possession, and it continues to reflect the name of the person originally assessed until the transferee applies for mutation,” he argues.