A court on Tuesday sentenced five Dalit students from the English and Foreign Languages University here to six-month imprisonment for defamation. Fourth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate granted the five — Munavath Sriramulu, Bathran Ravichandran, Mohan Dharavath, M Upender and N Satish — bail and gave them one month to appeal. They will have to pay Rs 5,000 each as surety within seven days.

“Considering the economic and family backgrounds of the accused, this court is of the view that it is not a fit case to impose any fine,’’ the court said.