The family of A. Madhu, a tribal man from Chindaki in Attappady who was lynched by a crowd in February 2018, has raised a demand to replace the special public prosecutor.
Madhu’s sister Sarasu filed a petition at the SC/ST Special Court, Mannarkkad, where the case is being tried, to change the prosecutor.
However, the court said that it could not change the prosecutor appointed by the government.
The court said the family could approach the government with the demand.
Sarasu said she approached the court for change of the prosecutor because several witnesses had turned hostile. She said the other witnesses were also likely to turn hostile because they were being influenced by the accused.
Witnesses Unnikrishnan and Chandran had turned hostile two days ago. Unnikrishnan and Chandran backtracked from their earlier statements that they had seen Madhu being beaten up. They said their earlier statements were given under threat from the police.
Special public prosecutor C. Rajendran said that his difficulty to talk to the witnesses had raised some issues during the trial.
Madhu’s family had alleged that the accused were trying to scuttle the case by using power, money and influence.
