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AP ex-minister convicted for murder
Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad |
December 22, 2004 17:35 IST
A metropolitan magistrate's court in Hyderabad on Wednesday sentenced a former Andhra Pradesh minister to life imprisonment in a double murder case.
Second Metropolitan Magistrate Rajagopal Reddy awarded life term to seven other accused also.
The eight convicted have been sent to the Cherlapalli central jail on the city outskirts.
Ramasubba Reddy of the Telugu Desam Party was the prime accused in the 'Shadnagar double murder case'.
Some supporters of then TDP legislator and former minister P Siva Reddy had brutally killed two Congress activists, Shankar Reddy and Lakkireddy Gopal Reddy, on December 6, 1990.
The victims were dragged out of a state Road Transport Corporation bus, which was on its way from Hyderabad to Jammalamadugu in Cuddapah district, before being killed.
The 43-year-old Ramasubba Reddy, who served as a minister in the N T Rama Rao and N Chandrababu Naidu cabinets, is a nephew of the late Siva Reddy.
Even as a minister, he attended the trial at a sessions court in Mahbubnagar.
A relative of a deceased had filed an application in the high court seeking the transfer of the trial to Hyderabad. The high court transferred the trial, keeping in view the safety of the kin of the deceased who could be examined in the case.
Of the 12 accused, three died during the trial, while Siva Reddy was killed in 1992.
Speaking to media before being taken away to the jail, Ramasubba Reddy said he will decide on the future course of action after going through the judgment and consulting his lawyers. "I have no connection with the case. I hope to go in appeal and get justice," he said.
He had lost the Assembly elections earlier this year.