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Malappuram (Kerala) | A court here on Friday sentenced five men to life imprisonment for beating to death a 42-year-old man in 2016 in a suspected moral policing incident at Mankada here.

Additional District and Sessions Judge I Thushar M sentenced the five men -- Abdul Nazar, Sharafudheen, Suhail, Abdul Gafoora and Sakkeer Hussain -- to life imprisonment and said that such instances of mob lynching should be discouraged, special public prosecutor (SPP) P G Mathew told reporters outside the court.

The court imposed a fine of Rs 85,000 on the accused and said if the amount was recovered from them, it should be given to the victim's legal heirs.

The court had on February 17 convicted the five accused for the offences under sections 143(unlawful assembly), 147(rioting), 148(rioting with a deadly weapon), 449 (house-trespass) and 302 (murder) of the IPC.

Besides that, it had convicted Suhail and Sakkeer Hussain under section 201 (destruction of evidence) of the IPC, the SPP said.

The prosecutor further said that the victim -- Nasir Hussain -- had gone to his female friend's home with her consent, but the accused forcibly entered the house and cruelly beat him to death with wooden sticks and logs.

He said that the accused did not allow anyone to even give water to the victim and prevented him from being taken to the hospital.

"The court was of the view that it was done with the intention to kill him," the prosecutor said.

The SPP further said that the court, based on Supreme Court decisions, was also of the view that such an incident should be seen as an act of "terrorism".