Monday, August 30, 2010

Supreme Court upholds death sentence

Dharmapuri bus burning case: Supreme Court upholds death sentence.

PTI.


The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death sentence awarded to three AIADMK workers in connection with the 2000 Dharmapuri bus burning case in which three college girls were charred to death.
A bench comprising Justices G.S. Singhvi and B.S. Chauhan confirmed the death sentence awarded by the Madras High Court in 2007.

The trial court had also held the three workers guilty and awarded capital punishment.
Twenty-five other persons were given punishments ranging from two months to two years imprisonment in the case.

The three victims -- Kokilavani, Gayathri and Hemalatha -- were students of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. The bus in which they were travelling along with 44 other students and two teachers was torched on February 2, 2000 following the conviction of AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa in a criminal case. During the hearing on the appeal in the apex court, the state had submitted that there was clear evidence to suggest that the three AIADMK functionaries -- C Muniappan, Nedunchezhian, and Ravindran -- were responsible for burning the bus, resulting in the death of the three girls.

The three were identified by witnesses during the identification parade and the role of each one of them was corroborated by evidence. On February 16, 2007, a trial court in Salem had awarded death sentence to the three accused after finding them guilty of murder, attempt to murder and other charges under the IPC and gave varying sentences of two months to two years to 25 others.
The Madras High Court had on December 6, 2007 had confirmed the capital punishment and the sentence of imprisonment imposed on 25 others

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