PALAKKAD: The final hearing also got over and now the Manarcadu SC-ST court will now decide upon the verdict today. Tribal man Madhu was murdered five years back in an incident of moral policing.

The witness testification was completed 11 months before, and now, the case is reaching its fag-end. The prosecution had 127 witnesses while the defense section had six. 27 witnesses from the prosecution earlier changed sides shocking everyone. The prosecution appealed before the trial court about the convicts persuading and threatening the witness to change stands which convinced the court. The bail terms of the 12 convicts were then cut short by the court in a punitive step to avoid any act of threatening.

On February 22, 2018, a tribal man Madhu was tied up and beaten by the localities and youths accusing him of stealing rice from a nearby shop. The videos of the incident were well-circulated in the media and grabbed national attention. Four prosecutors were appointed in the case which evoked the curios factor. Another case saw the court asking for an eye test of one witness after the latter admitted to not seeing anything in the video that was displayed in the court.

With the witness changing stands turned into a normal scenario, Madhu’s mother appealed before the court to change the special prosecutor after which Rajesh M Menon was appointed the new one.