Special Public Prosecutor seeks re-trial of two of the witnesses who turned hostile
Special Public Prosecutor seeks re-trial of two of the witnesses who turned hostile
The Special Court for SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act at Mannarkkad, which is trying the sensational Attappady Madhu lynching case, has further deferred its decision on the bail application of 11 accused.
Special Court Judge K.M. Ratheesh Kumar on Saturday postponed his decision on the bail application after Special Public Prosecutor Rajesh M. Menon demanded re-trial of two of the witnesses. The court will take a decision on Tuesday.
Mr. Menon demanded that Kali Moopan and Kakki, witness number 18 and 19 respectively, should be tried again. Temporary watchers with the Forest department, both had been sacked from their job after they turned hostile while testifying before the court.
The court is expected to take a decision on Mr. Menon’s demand before issuing an order on the bail application.
The court on Saturday heard two more witnesses. Mohandas and Kumaran, civil police officers of Agali police station, stood by their original statement while testifying before the court.
The trial will continue on Monday. Balram, Forensic Medicine department head at Government Medical College, Thrissur, will be tried on Monday. He had conducted the postmortem of Madhu.
It was on February 22, 2018, that Madhu, 27, from Kadukumanna tribal hamlet near Mukkali in Attappady, was 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.
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 16 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. But within four months of the trial, over two dozen witnesses turned hostile, raising concerns of the prosecution losing the case.
