25 AIADMK workers get bail in Dharmapuri bus burning case

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted conditional bail to 25 AIADMK activists convicted in the February 2000 Dharmapuri bus burning case and suspended the implementation of the seven-year rigorous imprisonment term awarded to them by a court in Salem.

Holding that persons convicted for offences less grave in nature would be normally given bail, a division bench of Justices R Balasubramanian and Prabha Sridevan said it did not find any reason to deviate from that stand  and granted bail in response to an appeal by the activists.

Following the conviction of AIADMK president and former chief minister Jayalalithaa in the Pleasant Stay Hotel case, irate party workers and then local office-bearers at Dharmapuri set fire to a bus of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University on February 3, 2000 in which women students were travelling. Three girls were charred to death while 18 others were injured.

Granting the activists bail, the court directed them to furnish personal bonds of Rs 25,000 each with two sureties for like amounts and to report to the Crime Branch-CID of the Tamil Nadu Police every day at 10 am.

Besides the seven-year jail term given to 25 people, Salem's Additional Sessions Judge D Krishnaraja had on February 17 awarded death penalty to three persons after holding them responsible for the gruesome incident.

In all, 31 persons were accused in the case. One person died during the course of the trial, while two were acquitted.