Kerala mob lynching case: Why High Court acquitted first accused after 8 yrs?

Unreliable witnesses and lack of substantial digital evidence led to the acquittal of Hussain M, the first accused in the case pertaining to the mob lynching of 27-year-old tribal youth named Madhu in 2018. The Additional Sessions Court, Mannarkad, had sentenced him to 7 years rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of ₹1 lakh in 2023.

The High Court, on Monday, suspended the sentence and conviction and acquitted Hussain based on an appeal petition filed by Hussain's counsels S K Saju, M Asokan and T Shajith. The prosecution case was that while Madhu was being persecuted and assaulted by the crowd, Hussain joined the group and stomped Madhu on the chest, resulting in his head hitting against wall and causing an injury, which according to the forensic expert would have contributed to the death. Hussain was held responsible for culpable homicide.

According to the prosecution, Madhu was made to sit in front of a temple hundi by the accused with his back resting against the wall. It is alleged that Hussain then stamped on Madhu’s chest while he was seated in that position, causing the back of his head to strike the concrete wall of the treasure box.

The Sessions court found Hussain guilty based on the statements of two witnesses. The alleged stamping happened within a span of barely 3 seconds as per the timeline. The HC considered if the two witnesses were actually present in a position from which they could have witnessed the act during those precise moments. Evaluation of CCTV footage showed that one of the witnesses had walked away from the scene barely one minute before the stamping. He returned to the scene, only 16 minutes after the incident.

The court did not accept the explanation offered by this witness for his absence. Another witness statement also fell flat since the court concluded that it would not have been realistically possible to witness the specific act of stamping allegedly committed within a crowded gathering near the treasure box from where he had stood.

According to the court, the CCTV footage showed some form of disturbance within the gathering; however, the actual act of stamping was not visible in the footage because Hussain had entered the crowd and the gathering itself obscured what transpired within it.

"What precisely occurred during those crucial three seconds is something which the CCTV footage itself does not reveal. The only witnesses who claimed to have actually seen the stamping were found unreliable on the question of their presence at the relevant time," the court observed.