Muthanga verdict renews questions over Adivasi man’s death in police action
An analysis of the Muthanga case has questioned why the death of Adivasi protester Jogi was not examined in the trial arising from the 2003 land agitation in Kerala. While one man was held responsible for a policeman’s death and four leaders were convicted, the article says no public inquiry into Jogi’s death has been established.
The recent verdict in Kerala’s Muthanga case has renewed questions about the death of Adivasi protester Jogi during the police eviction of a land occupation in 2003. The Principal Sessions Court in Wayanad delivered its judgment on July 31. The agitation, led by the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha under C.K.
Janu and M. Geethanandan, demanded implementation of a 2001 government promise to distribute land to landless Adivasi families. Police action on February 19, 2003, left one Adivasi and one police constable, Vinod, dead.
The court found only Ashokan, who has since died, responsible for Vinod’s death. It acquitted the other 56 accused of that charge, while convicting four leaders, including Geethanandan, over a conspiracy connected with an assault on a surviving officer. The Kerala High Court later suspended the sentences and granted bail pending appeal.
The supplied analysis argues that the proceedings did not address how Jogi died. It says he appeared in the judgment as an accused alleged to have participated in violence, rather than as a person whose death required investigation. The article attributes the omission to the boundaries of the 2004 chargesheet and the investigation.
It says the case focused on the death of Vinod, assaults on officers and alleged conspiracy, while the special prosecutor told the media that Jogi’s death was outside the CBI’s mandate because police had been performing official duties. It also questions the composition of the evidence, noting that many prosecution witnesses were police, forest officials or investigators and that no Adivasi witnesses appeared. The article says the judgment recommended compensation for Vinod’s family and surviving officers but not for Jogi’s family.
The analysis calls for the government to establish what happened to Jogi, including whether a magisterial inquiry took place, and says his family could seek compensation under a scheme for victims of police violence. These are arguments by the article’s author, Abhilash Thadathil, not findings recorded as fact by the court.
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