NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday commuted the death penalty of three convicts into life imprisonments, who were involved in the torching of a bus at Dharmapuri in 2000, which led to the death of three college students died.
Dharmapuri case relates to the death of three students – Kokilavani, Gayathri and Hemalatha – of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, when the bus they were travelling in along with 44 other students and two teachers were torched by the three convicts among others.
The apex court Bench comprising Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Prafulla C Pant commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment after hearing plea by Muniappan, Nedu alias Nedunchezhian and Maadhu alias Ravindran, seeking the recall of August 30, 2010, verdict upholding their death sentence. “The incident happened in a flash during mob frenzy and is not pre-meditated. In this case, the convicts had not even know their victims and their crime did not deserve the death penalty,” the Bench said.
The Bench was hearing a review petition filed by the three convicts seeking reconsideration of the judgment dated August 30, 2010, which upheld both the trial court and Madras High Court verdicts. The apex court had stayed their execution in January 2011.
The HC in its ruling had termed the incident “a serious one” and had ordered relief measures for the families affected by it. During the hearing, L Nagesghwar Rao, one of the defence counsel, referred to the riots after the killing of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to argue that the accused, who were part of a rampaging mob, cannot be held fully criminally liable for the crime as their mental capacity were impaired at the time. “In TN, people are emotionally attached towards their leader. If something goes against their leader, people resort to protests, agitations and some even commit suicide,” said the counsel. He argued that the killing was not pre-planned, but a spur of the moment reaction.
Senior counsel Sushil Kumar, appearing for the other two convicts, said the intention of the convicts was only to destroy the public property. They thought that the bus belonging to the agricultural University belonged to the government, leading to the incident in which three girl students died and several others sustained burns.