VELLORE: The three AIADMK members, who were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Dharmapuri
bus burning case in which three female students of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, were burnt alive 18 years ago, were released from the Vellore Central Prison on Monday after Governor Banwarilal Purohit accepted the State government's recommendation for their premature release to mark the birth centenary of former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran.
They were released following the orders of the Tamil Nadu government setting them free under a scheme of premature release of prisoners who have completed 10 years on the occasion of the birth centenary of late Chief Minister MG Ramachandran (MGR). Nedu @ A Nedunchezhian (No 24424), Madhu @ G Ravindran (24425) and C Muniappan (24426) walked out of the jail as the prison authorities freed them after receiving the relevant orders from the office of the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Prisons.
While there were mixed reactions from various parties to the release of these AIADMK men, the ruling AIADMK saw this as a forerunner to the release of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
AIADMK spokesperson G Samarasam told Express: "We wish the release of these three life convicts as a forerunner to the release of seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case for which the State government has already made a forceful plea with the Governor."
Samarasam also pointed out that these three convicts had undergone jail term for many years and they had realised the gravity of the crime they had committed. Now, the Governor has pardoned them, he added.
Earlier this year, the Tamil Nadu government recommended premature release of around 1,800 life convicts, who had served 10 years of imprisonment, including these three convicts, to mark the birth
centenary of former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran. Last month, the Governor returned files in this case, asking the government to reconsider its recommendation.
However, in the first week of this month, the State government made the recommendation again for the premature release of these convicts. The Governor accepted it and the three convicts were released on Monday from the Vellore prison.
It is to be recalled that on February 2, 2000, after a special court convicted the then general secretary in a hotel case and sentenced her to one-year rigorous imprisonment, violence erupted across the state.
In an incident, three students of the TNAU, who were on an educational tour, were burnt alive when the bus in which they were travelling was set ablaze by a group of people. The incident claimed the lives of three girl students namely, Kokilavani, Gayathri and Hemalatha. The next day, police registered FIRs against three AIADMK men A Nedunchezhiyan, G Ravindran and C Muniappan and many others.
In February 2007, the Salem First Additional Sessions Court awarded death sentence to these three men and in December that year, the Madras HC upheld the verdict. Later, when the three challenged the HC verdict before the SC, the apex court too upheld the HC order in August 2010.
Following this, the three filed a review petition before the SC seeking commutation of death sentence to a life sentence, arguing that the bus burning incident was not a premeditated one and that they had no motive to murder the three students.
Accepting this, in March 2016, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court comprising the present Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, commuted the death sentence to life term, saying the incident happened in a flash during a mob frenzy and was not premeditated.
Trio let out early to avoid media gaze
“The three life convicts were released at 12.30 pm on Monday after receiving necessary orders from the office of our ADGP,” Vellore Central Prison superintendent M Andal told Express.
However, informed sources stated that the trio that set the bus on fire in Dharmapuri on February 2, 2000, during a violent protest, were allowed to go out of the prison early in the morning in order to avoid media exposure.
A large number reporters and camera persons, who thronged the main entrance of the Central Prison, in the forenoon after word trickled down on the release of the three convicts, had to return disappointed as the three convicts had already walked out.