Kochi
A day after convicting them, the Special Court for Scheduled Castes and Tribes in Mannarkad on Wednesday sentenced 13 of the 14 accused convicted in the case of lynching tribal youth Madhu to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI). Madhu was lynched by the accused in 2018 on suspicion of stealing rice from a grocery store.
The court had on Tuesday held 14 of the 16 accused guilty of Madhu’s murder and acquitted two others. While all the accused will be shifted to Thavanur jail, the court has also ordered action against hostile witnesses.
Pronouncing the quantum of sentence, Judge K.M. Ratheesh Kumar of the Special Court directed Muneer, the 16th 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. The prosecution had charged Hussain with kicking 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 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.
In all, 103 people were examined as witnesses. Of them, 24 turned hostile including many of Madhu’s relatives themselves.
