PALAKKAD: The saga of witnesses turning hostile continued on Thursday in the Madhu lynching case, the hearing of which is being held in the Special Court for Scheduled Castes and Tribes in Mannarkad. On Thursday, four witnesses who were examined turned hostile. Those who turned hostile were 32nd witness Manaf, 33rd witness Ranjith, 34th witness Manikandan and 35th witness Anoop. Thus the total number of witnesses who turned hostile in the case reached 20.
Meanwhile, the 29th witness Sunil Kumar who had turned hostile on Wednesday and stated that he could not see the visuals displayed in the courtroom and who was subjected to an eye test at the district hospital was reexamined on Thursday. The preliminary report from the district hospital stated that his eyesight was perfect. The same visuals which were shown on Wednesday of Sunil Kumar witnessing the beating up of Madhu and shouting “thief” were displayed on Thursday also. At that time, Sunil Kumar changed his statement given earlier. He said that the person shown in the visuals resembled him.
The court rejected the plea of the counsel of the accused that Sunil Kumar should be re-examined only after receiving the final report of the eye test. The application of the prosecution that action should be taken against Sunil Kumar for lying before the court that he had a failing eyesight will be taken up by the court on Friday.
Earlier, Sunil Kumar told the police that he had seen the accused catching and bringing Madhu from the forests to Mukkali, calling him a “thief” and the mob taking his visuals. It was when Sunil Kumar denied seeing it that the prosecution on Wednesday demanded that the visuals on the day of the death of Madhu be displayed. The court granted the permission sought by the prosecution. When the visuals were displayed, Sunil said that he could not see anything. It was then that the court directed him to take an eye test on Wednesday. The video showed the accused catching Madhu and bringing him to Mukkali and beating him up and Sunil was seen viewing everything.
It was on February 22 that a group of persons beat up Madhu accusing him of stealing provisions from the shop. He later succumbed to the injuries. There are 122 witnesses in the case.
20 WITNESSES TURN HOSTILE IN TOTAL
32nd witness Manaf, 33rd witness Ranjith, 34th witness Manikandan and 35th witness Anoop turned hostile on Thursday. There are 122 witnesses in the lynching case.