After an uproar from human rights activists and the media over a public prosecutor not appearing in court in the case of a mob lynching of Madhu, an adivasi man in Kerala, the state government appointed a new special public prosecutor and additional special public prosecutor to represent Madhu’s case in court. C Rajendran, a public prosecutor in the Kerala High Court, has been appointed as the special public prosecutor in the case while Rajesh M Menon has been appointed as a the additional SPP.
TNM had earlier reported how the trial in the case was delayed mainly due to lapses on part of then special public prosecutor VT Raghunath. In 2019, Raghunath had himself expressed willingness to appear in the case. But later, he neither filed an affidavit nor appeared in the court.
"The government has decided to terminate the service of VT Raghunath, advocate and a special public prosecutor in the above mentioned case as he is not appearing before the court to conduct prosecution," a Government Order dated Wednesday, February 16, stated.
A Madhu was lynched on February 22, 2018 in Palakkad district's Attappadi, over allegations of stealing rice from a grocery shop. It was in May 2018 that a special investigation team filed a 3000-page chargesheet.
The trial in the case was delayed from the beginning. Initially, the government delayed the appointment of a SPP. Even after that, the trial was delayed as he did not appear in the court. Also, the accused in the court sought a copy of digital evidence against them, which caused further delay. Raghunath did not oppose the plea by the accused, following which the court asked the prosecution to provide it to them. There were also certain technical delays in providing the digital evidence, which caused another major delay in the case.