The Dharmapuri bus burning incident occurred on February 2 2000 at Ilakiyampatti, on the outskirts of Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu, India. Three students from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore were burned to death.[1]
Contents |
Soon after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party (DMK) came into power in Tamil Nadu in 1996, it filed a series of corruption cases against the former Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary J. Jayalalithaa, other ministers, and bureaucrats of her government. In the "Kodaikanal Pleasant Stay Hotel case", a Special Court judgment given by Justice V. Radhakrishnan convicted Jayalalithaa and sentenced her to one year of "rigorous imprisonment".[2] This led to state wide protests and violence, including damage to public property by AIADMK members.[3]
Seventy students from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, were returning from a study tour on two buses. They were stopped by AIADMK men, who forced the students to alight. One of the men threw a petrol bomb, setting fire to a bus before all of the students had got out. Three girls, Hemalatha from Chennai, V. Gayathri from Virudhachalam and Kokilavani from Namakkal were burned to death, and 16 others were injured.[1] The scenes of the bus burning were captured and broadcast the following day on Sun TV.[4]
The incident caused anger amongst the student community. Schools and colleges were asked to shut for a week, and students across the state held silent processions and protest marches condemning the act.[5] Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi ordered a CB-CID investigation. Jayalalithaa demanded a CBI probe for a fair trial.[6] During the initial trial held at Krishnagiri court, 20 witnesses became hostile, and the Madras High Court halted the trial, ordering a re-trial at Salem court. After a series of delays in appointing a special public prosecutor[7] and problems with missing case bundles,[8] the trial progressed slowly. Seven years after the incident, on 15 February 2007, the Salem court sentenced 3 men to death and 25 others to seven years imprisonment.[9] Two others were acquitted, and one person died during the course of the investigation.The judgment was upheld by Madras High Court on December 6, 2007[10] and subsequently by the Supreme Court on August 30, 2010.[11]
The Tamil language film Kalloori was released in December 2007, just days before the Madras High court upheld the judgment of Salem court. The movie is about college life, and climaxed with a bus burning incident. Following public and media demands, the ending was changed.[12]