The Hindu : Front Page : Bus burning case: apex court stays death sentence for three

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Bus burning case: apex court stays death sentence for three

J. Venkatesan

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the death sentence imposed on three accused in the Dharmapuri bus burning case. They are said to be belonging to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

A Bench of Justice P.P. Naolekar and Justice Lokeshwar Singh Panta suspended the death sentence while admitting appeals filed by C. Muniappan, Nedunchezhian and Ravindran, challenging the Madras High Court judgment confirming the trial court’s order awarding death sentence to the three accused.

The Bench after hearing senior counsel Sushil Kumar, Ranjit Kumar and U.R. Lalit, for the petitioners and senior counsel Altaf Ahmed for the State directed the Tamil Nadu government to file all the records in the court expeditiously.

The case relates to the death of three girl students – Kokilavani, Gayathri and Hemalatha – of the 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 Jayalalithaa in a criminal case.

On February 16, 2007, a trial court in Salem awarded death sentence to three accused and sentences of varying periods to 25 others. The court said the sentences would run consecutively. On appeal, the Madras High Court on December 6, 2007 confirmed the death sentence and the sentence of imprisonment imposed on others, but modified it to the extent that it would run concurrently. The present appeals are directed against this judgment.

In their appeals, the three convicts assailed the High court judgment confirming the capital punishment in a case of a non-gruesome murder, which even as per the prosecution case fell under the exception of grave and sudden provocation in the spur of the moment. They said that the courts below with a prejudiced attitude and being pressurised by the existence of heavy media influence and exposure convicted them under Section 302 IPC (murder) and awarded death penalty.

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