Kozhikode: Twenty-three years after the Muthanga land agitation, Kalpetta principal sessions court on Friday acquitted 56 accused, including Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (AGMS) co-founder M Geethanandan, in the murder of police constable K V Vinod. However, Geethanandan and three others were convicted in a related attempt-to-murder case.Of the 57 accused in the murder case, 15 died during the trial. Sessions judge Ayyoobkhan E acquitted all the surviving accused in the murder case, holding that second accused Asokan had acted alone and that there was no prior criminal conspiracy. The court did not pronounce a sentence against Asokan as he died during the trial.Geethanandan was found guilty of criminal conspiracy in the attempt-to-murder of police officer Abdul Salam. Another accused, Binu S (53), was convicted of attempted murder, while Ramesan (58) and Anilkumar (53) were also found guilty of criminal conspiracy in the same case. Though the cumulative sentence awarded to them under various sections amounted to 19 years, the court directed that the sentences would run concurrently, requiring them to undergo five years of imprisonment.The court held that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the four had conspired to murder constable Vinod. It therefore acquitted them of the murder charge, extending them the benefit of the doubt.“Asokan (A2), seeing Jogi (Yogi) dead beside him, resolved that Vinod should not survive and aimed at his head, who was lying in an inclined position…This act was a personal decision, independent of conspiracy with others. This conclusion is supported by the testimony of other witnesses also,” the order said.The court held that the evidence showed Asokan hacked Vinod on the back of his head during police firing while trying to flee after witnessing his associate, Jogi, being shot dead. It observed that Asokan intended to inflict an injury likely to cause death, but the others near Vinod did not share that intention. Instead of remaining at the scene or continuing the assault, they fled. Had they intended to kill Vinod, they could have continued the attack and ensured his death on the spot, the court said. Vinod succumbed to his injuries while he was being taken to hospital.In the related case, the court found four accused guilty of attempting to murder police constable Abdul Salam of the KAP 4th Battalion. Salam testified that he heard someone exhorting Binu to hack him, following which he was attacked on the neck. He said he was then dragged towards a shed by his shirt, and that others joined the assault, fracturing his left knee. He further deposed that the attack was carried out under Geethanandan’s leadership.The court recommended that Rs 7 lakh be paid as compensation to the legal heirs of Vinod, the family’s sole breadwinner.Defence counsel T M Rasheed said the convicts would challenge the verdict in the attempt-to-murder case, while Vinod’s family said they would appeal against the acquittal of the accused in the murder case.The police firing took place in the Muthanga forests on Feb 19, 2003, after more than 600 tribal families set up thatched huts there as part of their struggle for the land they had been promised. Police fired 18 rounds during clashes with the protesters, leaving tribesman Jogi and police constable Vinod dead. The huts erected by the protesters were set ablaze, and the agitators, including women and children, were rounded up and bundled into police vans.The AGMS decision to occupy the forest and declare ‘self-rule’ came against the backdrop of around 30 starvation deaths in Wayanad. It followed the state’s failure to implement an agreement it reached with tribesmen in Oct 2001 after a 48-day agitation in front of the Secretariat, under which every Adivasi family was to be allotted cultivable land.