Thiruvanthapuram: Fr James Morais, a Jesuit priest who heads the Attappady Adivasi Development Initiative (AADI), has submitted a complaint to Agali DySP T.K. Subramaniyan against the attempts to defame Madhu, the tribal youth lynched by a mob. The complaint was filed following reports carried by a website malayalamemagazine.com accompanied by audio clips apart from voice clips circulated through WhatsApp and Facebook.
There were allegations that WhatsApp groups with police and forest staff from Palakkad as members had been spreading CCTV visuals from Mukkali town in Attappady containing visuals of theft from shops portraying the person in the visual as Madhu. The visuals showed a person who tried to steal food from shops and also eating bakery items. There was a deliberate attempt to paint the person in the visual as Madhu, said Fr Morais.
The person is a well-built man in good dress. He cannot be Madhu. It is well known that Madhu who had mental issues was a wanderer for over six years and was seen in shabby cloths, Fr Morais told Deccan Chronicle. A story was also being spread through social media depicting Madhu as someone who trespassed into houses to sleep beside women. There were also audio clips accusing Madhu of being behind the two cases of setting fire to shops. In one of the video clips, a girl in her 20s is seen narrating these allegations, said Fr Morais. This was part of a move to get sympathy for those who lynched Madhu by arguing that he deserved such a treatment, said Fr Morais.
