Visakhapatnam, April 16 (IANS): A court in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam on Tuesday sentenced YSR Congress Party MLC Thota Trimurthulu and eight others to 18 months in jail in the 1996 case of tonsuring Dalit youths.
The XI Additional District and Session Court-cum-special court for the trial of cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act also imposed a fine of Rs 42,000 each on the nine convicts.
Trimurthulu is also the YSRCP candidate for the Mandapeta Assembly seat in the Konaseema district in next month's polls.
The case had created a sensation in 1996 and the victims and their families have been awaiting justice for over two and a half decades.
On December 29, 1996, Trimurthulu, the then independent MLA of Ramachandrapuram, had allegedly tonsured two Dalit youngsters Koti Chinna Raju and Dandala Venkata Ratnam and beat up three others, Challapaudi Pattabhiramayya, Kanikella Ganapati and Puvvala Venkata Ramana of Vnketayapalem. in East Godavari district as they had opposed him in Assembly elections.
The Dalit youth had worked for polling agents of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
On a complaint by the two victims, a case was registered in 1997 at Draksharamam police station in East Godavari district.
Trimurthulu was elected as an MLA on a TDP ticket in 1999 and 2014.