YSRCP MLC sentenced to 18 months jail for shaving head of Dalit youth

A court in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, on Tuesday sentenced YSR Congress Party MLC Thota Trimurthulu and eight others to 18 months in jail for the head shaving incident of Dalit youth in 1996.

The XI Additional District and Sessions Court-cum-special court to hear cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act also imposed a fine of Rs 42,000 each on the nine convicts. Trimurthulu is contesting from Mandapeta in Konaseema district in the polls next month. There is also a YSRCP candidate from the assembly seat. The case had created a sensation in 1996 and the victims and their families have been waiting for justice for more than two and a half decades.

On December 29, 1996, Trimurthulu, the then independent MLA from Ramachandrapuram, had allegedly shaved two Dalit youths, Koti Chinna Raju and Dandala Venkata Rathnam, and thrashed three others, Challapaudi Pattabhiramayya, Kanikela Ganapathy and Puvvala Venkata Ramana of Venketayapalem. . in East Godavari district because he had opposed him in the assembly elections.

Courtesy: Hindi News