Kerala special court convicts 13 people for beating to death tribal man in 2018

A special court in Kerala on Tuesday convicted 13 people for beating to death a tribal man in Palakkad district of the state for allegedly stealing food articles in 2018The court sentenced them for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 Part II of the Indian Penal Code IPC which carries a maximum punishment of 10 years jail term Special Public Prosecutor SPP Rajesh M Menon told reportersThe SPP said the court was of the view that the accused did not have the intention to kill the tribal manMadhu a tribal man from Attappady was beaten to death after he was caught tied and thrashed by a group of local people alleging theft on February 22 2018More than five years after the incident a special court for trial of offences under the SCST Act held 13 of the 16 accused in the case guilty for the crimes under Section 304 II of IPC and various other provisions of the IPC and SCST Act the SPP saidThe 14th convict was only held guilty for the offence of assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation under Section 352 IPC which carries a punishment which may extend to three months or a fine which may extend to Rs 500 or bothSpecial court judge K M Ratheesh Kumar however acquitted the remaining two accused in the case the SPP saidThe special court had reserved its judgement in the case on March 30Also Read Jaisinghani daughter tried to bribe extort money from Amruta Fadnavis CourtPrior to pronouncement of the verdict the victims mother and sister said they expected that Madhu will get justice We expect a good verdict the victims mother saidHis sister said I believe my brother will get justice We expect it to be a good verdictThe trial in the matter saw witnesses turning hostile allegations of threats to the victims family to settle or withdraw the case and a change in the Special Public Prosecutor SPP in June last yearAdvocate Menon who was the additional public prosecutor in the case took charge as SPP in June last year after the victims family sought a change in prosecutorAccording to the postmortem report in the case Madhu had injuries on the head and bruises all over the body including broken ribs as well as internal bleeding police had saidMadhu who was said to be mentally unsound was living in a cave in the forest for the past several months his family had saidHis mother and sister had told television channels back in 2018 that a group of nearly 1015 persons had gone to the forest and thrashed him for allegedly stealing food articles from some shops in the forestfringe Agali town in Palakkad districtThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever