Bengaluru, April 16 -- A special court for MPs and MLAs convicted Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni and 18 others on Wednesday in the 2016 murder of BJP leader Yogesh Gowda, ending a nearly decade-long investigation and trial that gripped Dharwad politics.

Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat delivered the verdict in the presence of Kulkarni and the other accused. The court also acquitted two people in the case. It is scheduled to pronounce its sentence on Thursday.

The case relates to the killing of Yogesh Gowda, who was attacked by a group of assailants at a gym in Dhadwad on June 15, 2016. He died at the scene. Investigators later treated the killing as a conspiracy. At the time of the incident, Kulkarni was serving as a minister in the state gover...