Kerala HC Orders Life Imprisonment for 12 Convicts in Attappadi Madhu Lynching Case

The Kerala High Court on Monday sentenced 12 convicts to life imprisonment in the 2018 lynching of tribal youth Madhu , calling the incident a shocking example of “community vengeance” and social prejudice against marginalised communities.

A Division Bench comprising Justices A Raja Vijayaraghavan and K V Jayakumar enhanced the punishment awarded earlier by a special court, observing that Madhu was “hunted down, publicly humiliated” and stripped of basic human dignity before his death. The court also acquitted the first accused, citing unreliable evidence, while increasing the sentence of another accused from three months to one year.

Madhu, a 27-year-old tribal man from Attappadi in Palakkad district, was lynched in February 2018 after being accused of stealing rice and grocery items. Images showing him tied up, beaten and paraded in a semi-naked condition had triggered outrage across Kerala and sparked a national debate on mob violence and caste discrimination .

The High Court said the case exposed “the power of the organised over the defenceless” and noted that Madhu had “stole food because he was hungry.” It criticised the collapse of eyewitness testimony, saying many witnesses “collectively chose to look the other way.”

The judgment also underlined the continuing vulnerability of tribal communities , who often face poverty, social exclusion and prejudice despite legal protections. Rights activists have long argued that the case reflected deeper systemic neglect of Adivasi populations in Kerala’s forest regions.

The court ordered Rs 30 lakh compensation for the victim’s family and imposed fines on the convicts under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.