The Special Court for SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Mannarkkad, which is hearing the Attappady Madhu lynching case, deferred the resumption of the trial to September 13. The court was to resume the trial on Saturday.
The court was in media focus ever since it started the trial on June 8. The prosecution as well as Madhu’s family had raised concerns as witnesses started turning hostile one by one. As many as 13 witnesses have turned hostile so far.
The court stopped the trial on August 10 when the Special Public Prosecutor Rajesh M. Menon moved the court seeking cancellation of the bail granted by the High Court to 12 of the accused in the case.
Justice K.M. Ratheesh Kumar on August 20 cancelled the bail of the 12 accused on the ground that they had violated the bail conditions set by the High Court by trying to influence the witnesses.
However, some of the accused secured a High Court stay on the trial court’s order. High Court judge Justice Kauser Edappagath on August 24 stayed Mannarkkad court’s order for five days, questioning the legal authority of the lower court in cancelling the bail granted by the High Court.
It was on February 22, 2018, that Madhu, 27, from 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 the way to hospital. The cause of the death was internal injuries he suffered from the beating.
The police arrested the accused after two days when Madhu’s death triggered a row following circulation of photographs and videos on social media of his being tied and beaten up.
All the accused, however, secured conditional bails from the High Court on May 30, 2018. With the accused being released on bail, the trial of the case got inordinately delayed, and no special prosecutor was willing to take up the case.
Following pressures from Madhu’s family and human rights activists, and the High Court’s intervention, the Special Court for SC/ST (PoA) Act, Mannarkkad, began the trial on June 8, 2022.
