Bail had been quashed as the prosecution said the accused were influencing witnesses; 19 of 20 witnesses have so far turned hostile.
Mother of the lynched tribal youth Madhu with his photograph. (Supplied)
The sensational Madhu lynching case, in which a mentally-challenged tribal youth was beaten to death, saw yet another twist on Wednesday, 24 August, with the Kerala High Court staying the recent order by a subordinate court quashing the bail of all the 12 accused.
The 2018 lynching of the 30-year-old youth in Kerala’s tribal heartland Attappady on suspicion of serial theft, was back in the headlines on 20 August when the Special Court for Scheduled Castes and Tribes at Mannarkad, in Palakkad district, cancelled the bail of all the 12 accused.
When the police sought to execute the court order, it found that nine of the accused were absconding
On Wednesday, acting on an appeal filed by the fifth accused in the case, Judge Kouser Edappagath of the Kerala High Court observed that no lower court enjoys the right to cancel bail orders issued by any high court in the country.
Stating that he would consider the issue in detail on 29 August, the judge said the stay would remain valid till that day.
The petitioners reportedly went into hiding soon after the special court in Mannarkkad cancelled their bail and approached the high court on the grounds that the SC/ST court lacked the power to cancel their bail as it was obtained directly from a higher court.
“The trial court had cancelled the bails without proof that we influenced the witnesses in the case. The prosecution failed to furnish anything in the court in that respect, other than newspaper reports. By cancelling the bail, the trial court and the prosecution tried to save their faces from the allegations of faulty investigation and delayed trial,” they told the court.
Observing that the issues raised by the accused in the case were valid, the judge directed court officials to summon all the documents related to the quashing of bail from the Mannarkkad court before 29 August.
He said the court would give its final verdict on the issue after going through the documents and proceedings of the subordinate court.
South First had earlier reported that nine out of the 12 accused in the sensational case were missing after the special court quashed their bail. Only three surrendered and went back to jail.
All the accused are members of the influential settler community in Attappady, where Madhu lived.
The high court intervention comes at a time when legal experts and human rights activists are seeking an investigation into the revelation of the SC/ST court judge that he was threatened by the defence lawyer for cancelling the bails.
The defence also allegedly threatened to have adverse news about him circulated in the local media.
Despite the threats, the court cancelled the bails, accepting the prosecution’s contention that the accused had influenced witnesses leading to most of them turning hostile.
The prosecution said it feared that the accused, while free on bail, could subvert the trial as they had money and muscle power.
All except one of the first 20 witnesses in the case turned hostile by claiming that they never saw the lynching and that their earlier statements were recorded under intense police pressure.
The case has a total of 122 witnesses.
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