PALAKKAD: 13 out of 14 accused who were convicted in the lynching of Madhu, a tribal youth in Kerala's Attappadi in 2018, have been sentenced by the Special Court for Scheduled Castes and Tribes in Mannarkad on Wednesday to seven years rigorous imprisonment.
The judgment was delivered by Judge K.M. Ratheesh Kumar of the Special Court.
The court directed Muneer, the sixteenth accused, to pay a fine of Rs 500. He was earlier sentenced to three months in prison and continued to remain behind bars for long. He was charged under Section 352 of the IPC alone.
All the sentences will run concurrently.
The court also ruled that the first accused Hussain must pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
All the accused will be shifted to Thavanur jail.
The court has also ordered action against hostile witnesses.
The first accused, Hussein, according to the Prosecution, had kicked Madhu in the chest which made him hit his head on the hundi box kept in Mukkali.
The post-mortem revealed that the serious injury on the head was one of the reasons for his death apart from the internal injuries.
The court had acquitted two people in the case on Tuesday -- the 4th accused Aneesh and the 11th accused Abdul Kareem.
The court had charged 13 of the 14 accused under 304 (2) --- culpable homicide not amounting to murder as well as the provisions of the Prevention of Atrocities on Scheduled Castes and Tribes Act.
The second accused Marakkar, the third accused Shamsudheen, fifth accused Radhakrishnan, sixth accused Aboobacker, seventh accused Siddique, eighth accused Ubaid, ninth accused Najeeb, 10th accused Jaijumon, 12th accused Sajeevan, 13th accused Satheesh, 14th accused Hareesh and 15th accused Biju were convicted under Sections 143, 147, 323, 324, 326, 367 and 304 (2) r/w 149 and also under the 3 (1) d provision of the SC/ST Act.
The 27-year-old tribal youth was brutally lynched on February 22, 2018, in Palakkad district’s Attappadi, over suspicion of stealing rice from a grocery shop.
Of the 103 people who were examined as witnesses, 24 turned hostile. Many of the relatives of Madhu themselves turned hostile. However, circumstantial and digital evidence, including photos and videos which were circulated on social media by the accused themselves, were presented by the prosecution in an effective manner.