Bus burning case: Three death convicts to submit mercy plea
By IANSWednesday, September 22, 2010
CHENNAI - A mercy petition signed by the three convicts sentenced to death in a bus burning case in Tamil Nadu is likely to be submitted to President Pratibha Patil Thursday by leaders of the AIADMK party, a party source said Wednesday.
Last month the Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty awarded to three AIADMK activists - C. Muniappan, Madhu alias Ravindran and Nedu alias Nedunchezhian - for causing the death of three women university students by torching their bus near Dharampuri, Tamil Nadu, in February 2000.
Following the apex court’s decision, a local court in Vellore Tuesday ordered Vellore jail official to carry out the death sentence Oct 3.
Leaders of the AIADMK met the three convicts Wednesday in the jail and got their signature on the mercy petition.
The three agriculture university girls were burnt alive and several others sustained burns when the bus they were travelling in was set on fire by AIADMK activists protesting party chief J. Jayalalithaa’s conviction in Kodaikanal’s Pleasant Stay Hotel unauthorised construction case.
A Chennai court had in February 2000 convicted and sentenced Jayalalithaa and four others to one-year jail term each for legalising the unauthorised construction of the seven-storeyed Pleasant Stay Hotel at Kodaikanal when she was the chief minister 1991-96.
–Indo Asian News Service
