A vagrant, who was allegedly beaten to death by seven youths at Chittur, Palakkad on October 10, sustained over 50 assault wounds, according to the preliminary findings during the postmortem examination. The police officials probing the case said that he was also hit with a tree branch and was stomped on repeatedly.

The identity of the man is yet to be established. The police took the accused to the crime scene for evidence collection on Wednesday noon. They are also coordinating with officials in Tamil Nadu to establish the deceased man's identity. The police, however, have not slapped charges under mob lynching. In the past ten years, 6 mob lynching cases were registered in Kerala and 63 people were booked.

Initial probe has revealed that the accused held a grudge against him for frequently wandering around their house premises. 

The man's body was found near Chittur Dam on October 11, raising suspicions of mob lynching in the area. The Meenakshipuram police have arrested Karthik (26), Sanjay (27), Manikandan (25) Kathiresan (23) Naveen (24) Prasanth Kumar (30) and Suryaprakash (23), all residents of the Srambi tribal settlement in Kozhinjampara.

According to Meenakshipuram Circle Inspector Rajeesh, the seven youths, who were intoxicated at the time of the incident spotted the man near Chittur Dam on October 10. They confronted him for wandering around the area despite repeated warnings to leave.

“The man had shown signs of mental instability. He would visit shops and attempt to remove his clothes,” the officer told Onmanorama.

Local body representatives said the man was frequently spotted along the stretch of road from Gopalapuram to Meenakshipuram. According to Srambi ward member Sasikala, he would often ask for food at eateries in sign language and nobody in the area has heard him speak.

“Recently, however, he had become a nuisance to women. He would walk around without clothes, make lewd gestures and misbehave with women. We had to warn others about his behaviour, especially when we went out at night,” she said.

Block member S Vinod Babu said the man had once made lewd gestures towards Kathiresan's wife, following which she confronted him. Kathiresan had then warned the man to stay away, but his behaviour continued, Vinod Babu said.

“He would walk around without clothes at night and stay on the premises of the youths' house, harassing women. The women did not feel safe,” he said.

Jayanthi, the mother of accused Sanjay, told Onmanorama that the seven youths were friends who occasionally worked together, taking up odd jobs and performing with a band at events. Jayanthi works as a plantation labourer, while Sanjay's father is also a labourer.

“They occasionally drank, and we knew they were angry with the man. But nobody expected something like this to happen,” she said.

The couple has another son who is studying in Class 9. “Sanjay was our hope, and now he has become involved in such a case,” Jayanthi said.

The accused were produced before the Chittur First Class Magistrate Court and are to be remanded to custody. Further investigation is under way.