Three AIADMK men, serving life sentences for setting ablaze a bus in Dharmapuri resulting in the death of three girls of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), were granted remission and set free from the Vellore Central Prison on Monday.
Jayalalithaa case verdict
Nedunchezhian, Ravindran and Muniappan had resorted to violence after a Special Court in Chennai sentenced former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to one-year imprisonment in the Kodaikanal Pleasant Stay Hotel case on February 2, 2000.
Governor Banwarilal Purohit cleared the AIADMK government’s recommendation to release them prematurely. The Governor had earlier returned the file seeking remission of their life sentence for reconsideration by the government. However, the State sent back the file sticking to its stand, following which Mr. Purohit accepted the recommendation to release them.
Home Dept. issues GO
Inspector-General of Prisons R. Kanagaraj ordered their release on Monday, citing a Government Order issued by the Home Department on Sunday.
(Left to right) Muniappan, Nedunchezhian, Madhu alias Ravindran, the convicts in Dharmapuri bus burning case. File photo.
The convicts were originally awarded the death penalty by the trial court which was later upheld by the Supreme Court, but on a review petition their sentence was commuted to life imprisonment two years ago.
The case relates to the death of Kokilavani, Gayathri and Hemalatha — all students of the TNAU, Coimbatore, when the bus they were travelling in, along with 44 other students and two teachers, was torched by the three.
Earlier this year, the State government had recommended the premature release of about 1,800 life convicts, including the three, lodged in central prisons across Tamil Nadu on the occasion of the birth centenary of former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran.
Though the files of all the 1,800 convicts was sent to Raj Bhavan, the Governor decided to look into the matter case-by-case. While more than half the proposals were cleared and convicts released, the bus-burning case was the first to be returned back to the State for reconsideration.
