New Delhi: The Madras High Court on Tuesday suspended a lower court sentence awarding seven years rigorous imprisonment to 25 accused in the Dharmapuri bus burning case.
The Bench also granted them bail on the condition that they should stay in Chennai and report daily to the Crime Branch CID.
A Division Bench, comprising Mr Justice R Balasubramaniam and Ms Justice Prabha Sridevan, suspended the sentence awarded to AIADMK men D K Rajendran, D K Murugesan and 23 others by the First Additional Sessions Judge, Salem.
Three AIADMK workers were on Friday sentenced to death and 25 others to seven years imprisonment in the Dharmapuri bus burning case, in which three college girls were charred to death in February 2000.
A court in Salem on February 16 had found the three - Neduthezhian , Madhu and Muniappan - and 25 other party workers guilty of burning a bus carrying Tamil Nadu Agricultural University students in 2000.
The AIADMK workers were protesting the conviction of their leader Jayalalithaa in the Kodaikanal Pleasant Stay Hotel case.
The Additional District Sessions Judge D Krishna Raj said that the three death sentence awardees are required to pay a fine of Rs 59,000 each for various offences including attempt to murder, the 25 others are required to pay a fine of Rs 13,000 each for offences including attempt to murder.
There were a total of 31 accused in the case. While two were acquitted, one person died during the trial. The death sentence has been awarded after a lapse of 27 years in this court.
The court wants this to be a message to the state that political riots, where innocent civilians become victims of political sycophancy, will be dealt with harshly.
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