The Kerala High Court, on Monday, suspended the sentence and conviction of Hussain M, the first accused in the Attappady Madhu mob lynching case.
The Division Bench comprising Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V and Justice K V Jayakumar also rejected the appeals filed by the other 12 convicts. The court will convene at 12.30 pm today to deliver the judgement. The Special Court for SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Mannarkkad, sentenced Hussain to rigorous imprisonment for a cumulative term of 11 years and six months under various sections of the IPC along with penalty in 2023.
There were 16 accused in the case. After the trial, accused number 4 and 11 were acquitted. Of the remaining 14 convicts, 13 moved the court with an appeal against their conviction. Accused number 16 was sentenced to simple imprisonment for three months.
In the appeal filed by Hussain, it was submitted that the Mannarkad court entered a definite finding that he was not a party to the assembly that went to the forest to apprehend and bring Madhu to Mukkali, where he was manhandled.
The prosecution case was that while the crowd was persecuting and assaulting Madhu, Hussain joined the group and stamped him on the chest resulting in his head hitting against wall and causing injury, which according to the forensic expert would have contributed to the death. Hussain was held responsible for the culpable homicide.
According to Hussain’s contention in the appeal, it is not proved that the Hussain had any hostility towards the deceased or reason to be a party to the assembly of the assailants. The appeal petition cited that significantly, the court had not found Hussain guilty of the offence under the SC/ST Act.
The HC had last week directed the convicts to appear before the court on Monday, the day fixed for delivering the judgment. The bench had reserved its verdict on appeals filed by the convicted persons, along with a victim appeal submitted by Madhu’s mother, Malli.
Madhu, a tribal youth from Attappady in Palakkad, was lynched to death in February 2018 after being accused of stealing rice from a grocery shop. According to the prosecution, he suffered severe injuries, including head trauma, broken ribs and internal bleeding, and collapsed while being taken to the hospital.
The High Court had also directed four other accused in the case to be present before it. They include one accused currently out on bail, two who were acquitted by the trial court and another who has already completed the sentence imposed on him
The accused were charged under various sections (143, 147, 148, 323, 324, 326, 294(b), 342, 352, 364, 367, 368, and 302 r/w 149) of the Indian Penal Code, including unlawful assembly, wrongful confinement, kidnapping and culpable homicide, along with provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (3(1) (d), (r) (s) and 3(2) (v)). The trial court had found the accused guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
