A court on Friday acquitted all the accused in connection with the murder of police constable KV Vinod in 2003 during the Adivasi agitation for land rights in Muthanga in Kerala’s Wayanad district. Meanwhile, the court has convicted four people, including tribal leader M Geethanandan, for involvement in a connecting attempt-to-murder case.
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“That injury was made by Asokan (A2) at the time of firing, it was his own decision, who was provoked, who having no planning to share his decision with any of the other conspirators who were having no previous intention to murder the deceased Vinod…since A2 is no more, the proceedings against him stood abated,” the court said, adding that the prosecution failed to prove the charge of conspiracy against the accused.
Of the 57 accused who were arraigned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Vinod murder case, only 42 stood trial at the time of verdict with the remaining 15 passing away during the course of the trial.
At the same time, the Kalpetta sessions court found four accused — Geethanandan (A1), Binu (A3), Rameshan (A5) and Anilkumar (A11) — guilty of involvement in the kidnapping and attempt to murder of police constable Abdul Salam and range officer PK Sasidharan.
The four accused were convicted under several sections of IPC and CrPC. They were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years and pay a fine of ₹10,000 each.
The court ruled that compensation of ₹3 lakh and ₹2 lakh be paid to Salam and Sasidharan respectively. It also stated that ₹7 lakh compensation be paid to the family of police constable KV Vinod.
KV Babu, Vinod’s brother and a retired deputy superintendent of police (DSP), said his family listened to the court verdict “with a numb heart.”
“That it took 23 years for this verdict to arrive tells so much about the state of the society we live in. That all of the accused have been acquitted is extremely disappointing. My father, when he was alive, would consistently follow the case developments. It’s good he didn’t have to hear the news of the accused being acquitted,” Babu told reporters.
“If the State government does not appeal against this verdict, my family will,” he added.
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Vinod (29), attached to the Kerala Armed Police 4th Battalion in Kannur, was detained allegedly by tribal protesters inside a shed after the police opened fire on the agitators to evict them from the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Muthanga on February 19, 2003. The constable later succumbed to fatal injuries sustained after being hacked with a sword to the back of his head.
Kalpetta sessions judge Ayyoob Khan E ruled that Asokan, the second accused in the case who passed away during the course of trial, hacked Vinod on the back of his head after witnessing his associate Jogi being shot dead in police firing. There was no evidence, the court said, to establish that Asokan inflicted the fatal wound on Vinod with the foreknowledge of the other accused in the case, including first accused and tribal leader M Geethanandan.
Defence counsel TM Rasheed, who represented the accused, said the verdict does not provide justice for the families of Vinod and Jogi, the tribal man killed in the police firing.
“There has not even been an investigation into the killing of Jogi. The CBI failed to bring the people who killed him to account,” said Rasheed.
In January 2003, members of the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (AGMS), under the leadership of Geethanandan and CK Janu, entered the forests under the wildlife sanctuary in Muthanga, set up huts and began cultivation in protest against the then Congress government’s inaction on allotting land parcels to tribals. The tribal protesters attempted to assert their rights over the land in Muthanga which were declared forest property in the 1960s.
Clashes broke out on the morning of February 19, 2003 when personnel from the police and forest departments began an operation to evict the protesters from the wildlife sanctuary in Muthanga. Pellets and tear gas shells were fired by the police in a bid to clear the area. The tensions escalated when constable Salam and forest officer Sasidharan were detained by the tribals, resulting in police firing. One tribal, Jogi, was killed in the firing, while Vinod succumbed to fatal injuries sustained during the clashes.
While official records point to only two fatalities, unofficial estimates by human rights groups and tribal outfits stated over a dozen deaths. The alleged indiscriminate firing by the police on the tribals, allegedly without any provocation, were widely condemned by rights groups and remains a dark chapter in the history of Adivasi land rights in Kerala. Late Justice VR Krishna Iyer, in a preliminary report, termed the police action as ‘excessive’.
The incident led to policy changes in the allotment of land to tribals in the state and propelled successive governments to address landlessness among tribals.
