The Kolar District Court, on Friday, convicted 19 persons in connection with the murder of Congress Leader Perumal.

All 19 men have been sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 was imposed on each of them. 

On May 25, 2008, the JD(S) candidate, G K Venkata Shiva Reddy won the Vidhana Parishad elections for the Srinivasapura constituency in Kolar.

Perumal was the Congress candidate, who had contested from the same constituency.

“The JD(S) party workers decided to celebrate the victory by bursting crackers in front of Perumal’s house. When Perumal’s mother heard the noise, she came out to ask what the ruckus was all about. Perumal also went out and later got into a heated argument with some of the men who pushed his mother. As the verbal battle got out of hand, the JD(S) workers hacked Perumal to death,” Kolar’s S Agrahara police said.

The case had taken several twists and turns and initially, 24 people were booked in the case. Of the 24, two men died during the course of the investigation and three of them were acquitted on Friday.

On December 20, 2010, the Kolar Rural Police had arrested two persons in Bengaluru in connection with the murder of a 27-year-old JD(S) party worker, Vijaykumar, whose body was found at Urigiyalli in Kolar.

Vijaykumar was a resident of Srinivasapura and the police had suspected political rivalry to be the reason for his death.

Upon further investigation, it was revealed that Vijaykumar was the prime accused in the murder of Congress leader Perumal.

“Vijayakumar was in prison as an undertrial and was released on bail in October 2010. His body was found on December 13, 2010 and his head was smashed against a boulder,” the police added.