Hyderabad, Sep 29 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh High Court Friday sentenced to life 11 people in connection with the murder of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's father Y.S. Raja Reddy.

The court convicted 11 of the 16 accused, all functionaries of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and sentenced them for life. The court pronounced the judgment while revoking the order of a lower court, which had acquitted all the accused.

While three accused were acquitted, two died during the trial.

Public prosecutor C. Nageswar Rao said the court also sentenced the convicts to two years imprisonment under Section 120 B of Explosives Substances Act.

Raja Reddy was killed in a bomb attack in Vemula town in Kadpa district while he was going from his son's estate at Idupulapaya to Pulivendula on May 23, 1998.

The government entrusted the case to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department, which registered a case against the accused and charge-sheeted them in 1999.

TDP leader S.V. Satish Kumar Reddy, who contested the 2004 assembly elections against Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in Pulivendula constituency, was excluded from the list of accused during the TDP rule.

Kadpa Fast Track Court on April 12, 2004 had acquitted all the 16 accused, including former Pulivendula market committee chairman, Perla Parthasarathi Reddy and his brothers - Perla Somasekhara Reddy, Perla Sesha Reddy, Perla Ramajaneya Reddy and Perla Ramakrishna Reddy.

The family of Raja Reddy approached the high court challenging the judgment.