AIADMK men convicted of charring 3 students to death, released courtesy EPS govt

On Wednesday, three convicts serving life sentences in Vellore Central Prison walked free at 12.25pm, just minutes after the order copy was faxed to the prison officials. The trio were serving a sentence for torching a bus with students from an agricultural university in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu. In that incident, three 20-year-old students, Gokilavani, Gayatri and Hemalatha were charred to death, even as they were returning to Coimbatore from a study tour. 

The three AIADMK party workers, Neduchezhian, Muniappan and Ravindran, who were part of the protesters who took to streets in the year 2000 to show their ‘anguish and displeasure’ at their leader’s conviction, walked after the current AIADMK government wrote to the Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit seeking their and 1600 other convicts’ release as part of the centenary celebrations of MGR.

After J Jayalalithaa was convicted by the Supreme Court of India in the Pleasant Stay hotel case, on 2nd February, 2000, in Elakiyampatti, Dharmapuri, two buses with over 70 students from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University were trying to reach the District Collector’s office for safe refuge, when protesters from AIADMK threw petrol bombs. The bus with 41 girls caught fire and even as most tried to escape,  three of them were burnt to death and 16 others were injured. 

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In March, 2016, the Supreme Court had commuted their death penalty to life sentences. The E Palanisamy government had recommended release of over 200 convicts, including the three, to the governor who sent it back to the state government who sent back the proposal last week to Raj Bhawan, re-emphasizing their demand.

The appeal was made under Section 161 of the constitution which refers to the ‘Power of Governor to grant pardons, etc, and to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases’. In its affidavit, the state government had contested hat the incident of burning which led to the deaths were an emotional outburst to their beloved leader getting convicted.