By IANS,
Hyderabad : A court in Andhra Pradesh Thursday sentenced eight accused to life imprisonment in the 2005 murder of former minister and Telugu Desam Pary (TDP) leader Paritala Ravi.
The Anantapur district court acquitted four accused for want of evidence, while one accused had turned approver.
C. Narayana Reddy, B. Rekamaiah, Ranganaikulu, Vadde Kondaiah, Vadde Srinivasulu, Hanumantha Reddy, Peddi Reddy and O.B. Reddy were awarded life sentence by the court.
The court acquitted G.V. Reddy, Anand Reddy, Ramasway and P. Goverdhan Reddy. Rammohan Reddy had turned approver.
Ravi, involved in many criminal cases in the Rayalaseema region, was gunned down in Anantapur town Jan 24, 2005.
The alleged mastermind behind Ravi’s assassination, gangster-politician Suryanarayana Reddy alias Maddelachervu Suri, was shot dead by his own aide in Hyderabad Jan 3 this year.
The factional rivalry between the families of Ravi and Suri, which claimed several lives over the last two decades, caught national attention last year after the release of “Rakta Charitra” (a history in blood), a multilingual film by Ram Gopal Varma.
Julakanti Srinivasa Reddy alias Muddu Seenu, a gangster who had confessed to killing Ravi, was murdered by a co-prisoner in Anantapur jail Nov 9, 2008. Another accused Konda Reddy died during the trial.
The CBI filed the charge sheet against 13 accused. Those booked included Suri, who was then undergoing life sentence in Jubilee Hills bomb blast case and had allegedly planned the killing of Ravi from Cherlapally Central Jail in Hyderabad.
Suri was sentenced to life in the Jubilee Hills bomb blast case in Hyderabad in November 1997 in which 25 people were killed and several others injured. Suri had allegedly targeted Ravi to avenge the killing of his family members but he escaped unhurt.