A mentally deranged tribal youth, Madhu, 27, a resident of Attappadi in Palakkad, was killed after locals brutally attacked him for allegedly stealing a kilogram of rice from a local shop on Thursday. 
Following suspicion that he had stolen food from a provision shop, a group of locals caught hold Madhu from the forest area and assaulted him before taking selfies with the hapless person. They also took videos of the attack. The poor youth couldn’t withstand the assault for long and collapsed. According to reports, the police, who came later as usual, took him to a hospital where he breathed his last. He reportedly gave statement to the police that he was brutally assaulted by the locals.
Due to his mental condition, Madhu was staying away from his tribal hamlet at Kadukumanna. It is believed that the youth did not have food for many days.
“How can people be so cruel and beat up a person for stealing 1 kg of rice,” asked tribal activist Dhanya Raman. She said people had encroached upon 13,000 acres of tribal lands with connivance of politicians, which led to the impoverishment of these tribals. “They don’t consider these poor tribals to be even humans,” said a journalist.
Post-modern will take place today. Tribal activists have upped the ante and demanded stern action against the culprits.
There is mounting anger against the mainstream media of Kerala which is always looking “Northwards” for issues. “They are interested only in sweeping unsavory things about Kerala under the carpet. There are no panel discussions or special programmes in otherwise noisy TV channels. Even a smallest incident in North India is blown out of proportion. They also defect public attention from all unsavory incidents happening in Kerala,” said social activist Ramakrishnan.
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