The Special Court for SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Mannarkkad, on Saturday cancelled the bail given to 12 accused in the Attappady Madhu lynching case. The decision came in the wake of a request by the prosecution to revoke the bail of the accused.
The prosecution, in its plea on August 10, had sought cancellation of the bail on the ground that the accused had violated the bail conditions and influenced the witnesses. As many as 13 witnesses had turned hostile ever since the court began the trial on June 8.
In a detailed order, Special Court Judge K.M. Ratheesh Kumar said “any further delay in cancellation of the bail of these accused (accused number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 and 16) will leave room for influencing the remaining witnesses in this case, and which in turn may result in complete damaging of the prosecution case.”
Justice Ratheesh Kumar said the accused had “influenced the witnesses and are attempting to challenge, rather dictate, the whole criminal administrative system in the country.” Any attempt to challenge the rule of law should be seriously dealt with or else “it will erode the public faith in the judicial system which will ultimately result in complete collapse of the judicial system in the country.”
Out of the 16 accused in the case, the court cancelled the bail of Marakkar, Shamsuddin, Aneesh, Radhakrishnan, Aboobacker, Siddeek, Najeeb, Jaijumon, Abdul Kareem, Sajeev, Biju, and Muneer.
However, the bail given to the other accused, Husain, Ubaid, Satheesh and Hareesh, was not cancelled. The court remanded Aneesh, Siddeek and Biju in judicial custody soon after issuing the order and sent summons to the remaining nine accused.
During the hearing on the prosecution’s demand, the counsel for some of the accused had cautioned the judge about possible consequences such as “a High Court memo, and bad press with judge’s photograph” if he cancelled the bail granted by the High Court.
Justice Ratheesh Kumar, in his order, said “the High Court will never unnecessarily harass subordinate officers if the order is supported by valid reasons. Apart from all these, every judicial officer is expected to discharge his duties without fear or favour.”
It was on February 22, 2018, that Madhu, 27, from the Kadukumanna tribal hamlet, near Mukkali, in Attappady was captured, tied and beaten up by a group of men on charges of alleged thefts. They handed him over to the police, but Madhu died on way to the hospital. The cause of the death was the internal injuries he suffered from the beating.
The police arrested the accused after two days when Madhu’s death triggered a row.
All the accused, however, secured conditional bail from the High Court on May 30, 2018. The trial of the case got inordinately delayed and no special prosecutor was willing to take up the case.
Following pressure from Madhu’s family and human rights activists and the High Court’s intervention, the Special Court began the trial on June 8, 2022. But within two months of the trial, 13 witnesses turned hostile, raising concerns of the prosecution losing the case.
The High Court, meanwhile, asked the trial court to complete the trial by August 31. However, the court suspended the trial on August 10 when the prosecution sought the cancellation of the bail given to the accused citing the witnesses turning hostile en masse as a reason.
Special public prosecutor Rajesh M. Menon expressed happiness at the cancellation of the bail. He said the trial would now resume soon.
