A special court in Kerala on Wednesday sentenced 13 people to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in a case of mob lynching that led to the death of a mentally unstable tribal man five years ago.

The special court for crimes against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Mannarcad, Palakkad, had held 14 of the 16 accused guilty of culpable homicide and other charges on Tuesday. Two of the accused were acquitted.

The first accused, M. Hussain, was convicted for the offence under Section 304 II of the IPC and slapped with a fine of Rs 1,05,000. The remaining 12 were additionally held guilty for crimes under sections 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 367 (kidnapping or abducting in order to subject a person to grievous hurt, slavery) of the IPC. The 12 convicts were also held guilty of the offence under Section 3(1)(d) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and were ordered to pay a fine of Rs 1,18,000 each.

The 16th accused, V. Muneer, was awarded three months in jail and a fine of Rs 500 for assault. He was ordered to pay the fine as his judicial custody period covered the sentence.

The court did not consider the murder charges levelled by the prosecution for want of ample evidence.

A 27-year-old mentally unstable and unemployed tribal man, Madhu, died on February 22, 2018, shortly after a brutal assault for allegedly stealing some food items from a shop in Attappady in Palakkad.

Madhu’s family was unhappy with Wednesday's sentence and decided to appeal.

“We will appeal as we are unhappy with the light sentence. We are appealing to the government for two prosecutors to help us file an appeal since we know it is a case of murder,” Madhu’s sister, Sarasu, told reporters on Wednesday.

The convicts have been moved to the central prison in Tavanur, Malappuram.