Trimurthulu was granted bail on Tuesday, and announced he would challenge the ruling.
YSRCP Mandapet MLA candidate Thota Trimurthulu (X)
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.