C Muniappan, Madhu alias Ravindran and Nedu alias Nedunchezhian were convicted of burning a bus on February 2, 2000, which led to the death of three students of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore.
In a judgment that could have a far-reaching impact on the way political and other protests are held and public property and lives damaged during such protests, the Supreme Court (SC) upheld on Monday a December 6, 2007, order of the Madras high court granting capital punishment to three members of the J Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK for burning three girl students to death during a protest 10 years ago.
SC also confirmed the seven years imprisonment awarded to 25 others by a Salem court on February 15, 2007.
C Muniappan, Madhu alias Ravindran and Nedu alias Nedunchezhian were convicted, first by a trial court and later by the high court, of burning a bus on February 2, 2000, which led to the death of Chennai’s Hemalatha, Virudhachalam’s V Gayathri and Namakkal’s Kokilavani.
They were part of a mob of AIADMK supporters protesting Jayalalithaa’s conviction in the Kodaikanal Pleasant Stay Hotel unauthorised construction case and her sentencing to a year’s rigorous imprisonment by a special court.
The protesters stopped two buses bringing students of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, back from a study tour in Dharmapuri. They asked all students and accompanying teaching and non-teaching staff to get out, but before all could alight, one of the protesters threw a petrol bomb at a bus, killing three students and injuring 16.
An SC bench of justices P Sathasivam and BS Chauhan held that the killing of the three students was a “rarest of the rare” crime. They noted that the protesters did not even heed pleas by the teachers accompanying them. Justice Chauhan said the crime was “inhuman and barbaric”.
They also slammed onlookers and police present at the crime scene for apathy, saying had police acted precious lives could have been saved.
Victims’ parents welcome the judgment. “The verdict has come after a delay of 10 years, but we welcome it. It has been our stand that the punishment meted out by the Salem court should be executed,” Gayathri’s father Venkatesh and Kokilavani’s father Veerasamy said.
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