Two days after Madhu, a tribal man from Kerala was beaten to death by a mob, the Kerala police have arrested all the 16 accused in the case.
Agali police confirmed to TNM that all 16 people, local residents, have been nabbed.
30-year-old Madhu, a tribal man from Attappadi, was severely beaten up on Thursday evening by the mob that accused him of having robbed food items including rice. Although the mob later called the local police, Madhu vomited and fell unconscious while he was being taken to the police station. He was declared brought dead by the doctors.
While the police had confirmed the arrest of 2 people on Friday, the remaining arrests were recorded late on Saturday.
According to Agali police, those arrested are Hussain (50), Marakkar (33), Shamsudheen (34), Aneesh (30), Radhakrishnan (34), Aboobacker (31), Siddique (38), Ubaid (25), Najeeb (33), Jaijumon (44), Abdul Kareem (48), Sajeev (30), Satheesh (39), Hareesh (34), Byju (41) and Muneer (28).
Ubaid is the man who clicked a selfie with Madhu.
Although the police had initially registered a case of unnatural death, they hav now charged all the accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 323 (causing voluntary hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 225 (resistance or obstruction to lawful apprehension of another person), 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 367 (kidnapping or abducting in order to subject person to grievous hurt, slavery, etc), 384 (punishment for extortion), 302 (murder), section 3(1) (d), 3 (2) (v) of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and section 27 (2) of the Kerala Forest Act.