Madhu Lynching Case| Kerala Court Sentences 13 Convicts To 7 Years Imprisonment

The Special Court for SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Mannarkkad on Wednesday pronounced the quantum of sentence in the Madhu lynching case. 

The case pertains to the brutal lynching of a mentally challenged tribal youth, Madhu, to death for stealing rice from a grocery shop in Attappady in Kerala in February 2018.

The Special Court Judge K.M. Retheesh Kumar had pronounced the order convicting 14 of the 16 accused persons, yesterday 

The accused had been charged with offences punishable under Sections 143, 147, 148, 323, 324, 326, 294(b), 342, 352, 364, 367, 368, and 302 r/w 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 3(1) (d), (r) (s) and 3(2) (v) of the Scheduled Caste and SC/ST(PoA) Act. The accused were found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. 

The Court today sentenced 13 of the 14 accused persons to rigorous imprisonment for a period of 7 years. The first accused has to pay a fine of Rs. 1,05,000/- while the remaining 12 accused have been imposed with a fine of Rs. 1,18,000/-. 

The 16th accused person in the case, Muneer, was only found guilty of the offence under Section 352 of IPC, and sentence to undergo simple imprisonment for three months and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/-. However, since Muneer was already found to have completed the jail term during the remand period, the Court directed that he would be released from prison on remitting the fine. 

The Special Court on 20th August 2022, had cancelled the bail granted to 12 of the 16 accused persons by the High Court for trying to influence witnesses. The Special Public Prosecutor, had applied for cancellation of bail alleging that several witnesses were turning hostile towards the prosecution in the course of the trial. Even though the cancellation of bail was challenged in the High Court again, the order of the Special Court was upheld.

On September 23, 2022, the High Court had also dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of one of the accused who had threatened the victim’s mother for proceeding with the trial. An FIR had been registered in Agali Police Station U/S 452, 506 (i), and195 A read with Section 34 of the IPC, and Section 3 (2)(v)(a) of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for threatening the mother of the victim. The FIR alleges that the accused trespassed into the house of victim's mother and threatened to murder her for proceeding with the trial pertaining to her son's death.