A Kerala court on Wednesday sentenced thirteen people to seven years in prison for lynching and murder of a tribal man named Madhu in 2018.
A special court established to hear cases under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (SC/ST Act) had convicted fourteen out of the sixteen people charged in the case yesterday.
The 16th accused was found guilty only under Section 352 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which entails a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
Madhu, a mentally challenged tribal adolescent, was tied up and brutally beaten to death by the accused in Palakkad’s Attappadi, according to the prosecution case.
After accusing Madhu of stealing rice from a grocery store, the accused reportedly kidnapped him from a nearby forest and assaulted him.
The accused found guilty by the Special Court today were 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), as well as Sections 3(1) (d), (r) (s), and 3(2) (v) of the Scheduled Caste and SC/ST(PoA) Act.
The High Court had previously given them bail, subject to several conditions.
However, after observing that several witnesses had turned hostile at the behest of the accused, the Special Court subsequently cancelled the bail. In 2022, the High Court upheld the cancellation of bail.
