70 acquitted in Muthanga case

SULTHAN BATHERY: Chief Judicial Magistrate Court I Judge P Pradeep, on Tuesday, acquitted 70 of the total 114 accused in a case filed by the Forest Department against the activists and leaders of Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (AGMS) in connection with the Muthanga agitation.AGMS leaders C K Janu and M Geethanandan were also among the acquitted.The court postponed pronouncing the verdict on the remaining 44 accused as they failed to seek bail after the completion of the trial as per a recent amendment (CRPC 437A), according to legal experts. Nine accused had died during the trial period.The Forest Department had charged six cases against the activists and supporters of AGMS under the Wildlife Protection Act in connection with the agitation staged by landless tribals in the Muthanga range of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in 2003. A tribesman and a policeman were killed when the police forcibly evacuated the agitators. Pronouncing the verdict, the judge stated that the Forest Department failed to prove the charges against the tribals."The case of the remaining accused will be split up and considered as a fresh case, which will be taken up after they get bail from the court," said Advocate T M Rasheed, counsel of AGMS. He told Express that it was just a technical procedure of the court. "The prosecution has failed to establish all charges against the accused including destruction to sanctuary, entering the forest with weapons and even the total number of the accused," he said.Of the six cases filed by the Forest Department, the verdict in a poaching case was delivered earlier.Four more cases are remaining, apart from the six criminal cases charged by the CBI at the CBI special court, Ernakulam.