Trimurthulu was granted bail on Tuesday, and announced he would challenge the ruling.
YSRCP MLC and Mandapet MLA candidate Thota Trimurthulu was sentenced to an 18-month jail term by a Visakhapatnam Court on Tuesday, 16 April for tonsuring two Dalit youth — Koti Chinna Raju and Dandala Venkataratnam — in Venkatayapalem in East Godavari district on 29 December 1996. The youth tried to stop election rigging in 1994 by Trimurthulu, then contesting as an Independent.