KOCHI The Kerala High Court on Friday stayed the trial in the case regarding the lynching of tribesman A. Madhu of Attappady pending before the Mannarkkad Special Court for offences under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The tribesman was lynched on February 22, 2018 by a mob for allegedly stealing rice from a grocery shop. A special investigation team filed a 3,000-page chargesheet in May 2018 against the accused and charged them with murder and offences under the Act.
Justice Mary Joseph passed the interim order on a petition filed by Malli, mother of the deceased Madhu, seeking a directive to keep in abeyance all the proceedings in the case till the government took a decision on her plea for removing special public prosecutor C. Rajendran. When the petition came up for hearing, P.V. Jeevesh, counsel for the mother, submitted that the special public prosecutor was conducting the trial in an inefficient manner, violating the basic principles of the rules relating to the examination of the witnesses. The investigation officer in the case had already given a report to the District Police Chief. Besides, the mother wrote to the State government seeking to allow additional special prosecutor Rajesh M. Menon to conduct the trial.
The counsel pointed out that the trial court took the stand that it could not defer the trial without an order from the government. If the trial was allowed to continue, the mother would be denied justice.
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