Action council livid as SPP in Madhu case is changed

PALAKKAD: Adivasi Action Council in Attappadi is planning protests and legal action against the state government revoking the appointment of a top criminal lawyer based here as the special public prosecutor (SPP) in the case related to the lynching of tribal youth Madhu of Kadukkummanu Tribal Colony in Attappadi.
Madhu, 30, who was mentally unstable, was living inside a cave in the Bhavani Forest in the Silent Valley region when a mob allegedly trashed him to death for stealing rice from shops in the residential areas.

All the 16 accused persons in the case are now out on bail, and the trial in the SC/ST Tribunal in Mannarkkad is expected to start in a few weeks.

The government had earlier issued an order to appoint P. Gopinath, an eminent criminal lawyer in Palakkad, as the special public prosecutor. But the home department last month revoked it citing that Mr Gopinath 'has informed his inability to agree with the regulation fee' as per the government rules.

But, Mr Gopinath says that there were no issues with the fee and his only demand was to set up an office in Mannarkkad as it was difficult for him to travel nearly 40 km from Palakkad on a daily basis during the trial.

"There are several vacant rooms in buildings of Attappadi Hill Area Development Society near the Tribunal, and such rooms can be provided for setting up the office of the SPP on nominal rates," Adivasi Action Council Attappadi president P. V. Suresh said.

With the state government's decision to hand over the case to the present SPP in the Tribunal, there was every possibility of the accused getting acquitted as he already had a heavy workload dealing with several SC/ST cases, said Youth Congress Palakkad segment president Boban Mattumantha.