Tamil Nadu minister, allies awarded jail term for 1998 Hosur riots

Tamil Nadu Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development P. Balakrishna Reddy was on Monday sentenced to three years imprisonment by a special court here for damaging buses with stones in 1998. The court hearing the cases against MPs and MLAs also fined him Rs 10,000.

The court convicted 16 persons out of 108 accused. Elected from Hosur, Reddy was part of a protest against illicit liquor in 1998 near his constituency. The protest turned violent resulting in stone pelting on buses. Meanwhile, on a petition, the judge suspended the sentence allowing Reddy to appeal in the Madras High Court.

(With inputs from agencies.)