Madhu lynching case: HC freezes 7-year RI of first accused

Kochi: The Kerala High Court here on Wednesday issued an order freezing the execution of the jail term awarded to Hussain, the first accused in Attappady Madhu lynching case. On April 5, 2023, a special court in Palakkad convicted 14 accused in the case. The court awarded 7 years of rigorous imprisonment for 13 convicts including Hussain and 3 month jail term for the 16th accused Muneer.

The High Court has frozen the execution of the first accused's punishment while considering the appeal of the accused. The court observed that Hussain had not accompanied the other accused in the initial phase of the crime and issued an order freezing the sentence. With this, bail will be granted to him on a personal surety of Rs 1 lakh. The HC also directed him not to enter Palakkad district after walking out of jail.

Apart from Hussain, 12 others-Marakkar, Shamsudhen, Radhakrishnan, Abubaker, Siddique, Ubaid, Najeeb, Jaijumon, Sajeevan, Satheesh, Hareesh and Biju who were sentenced to 7 years of rigorous imprisonment also filed an appeal in the High Court against the Palakkad court's judgement. But the High Court dismissed the petitions of all the 12 accused. 

The first accused -- M Hussain -- was convicted for the offence under Section 304 II of IPC and the remaining were additionally held guilty for crimes under Section 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 367 (kidnapping or abducting in order to subject person to grievous hurt, slavery).

Sections 326 and 367 carry maximum punishments of life imprisonment and up to 10 years jail term, respectively. 

The 16th accused person in the case, Muneer, was only found guilty of the offence under Section 352 of IPC for the offence of "assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation. His sentence was 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 shocking incident

Attappady Chindekki Ooru Mallan’s and Malli’s son Madhu (30) was lynched by a mob and killed on February 22, 2018. Madhu, who was mentally challenged, used to stay in a cave inside the wilds away from his family.

Madhu was captured from a cave inside a forest and paraded to Mukkali, a small junction in Attappady, by a group of people who accused him of frequently stealing from the shops in the area. He was allegedly assaulted by the accused leading to his death. He was handed over to the police at Mukkali and had to be taken to a hospital on the way to the police station. However, he was declared brought dead by the hospital.