The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Witnesses recall Dharmapuri bus burning incident

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Witnesses recall Dharmapuri bus burning incident

By Our Staff Reporter

SALEM, MARCH 21. Two prime witnesses, examined on the first day of the retrial in the Dharmapuri bus burning case before the Salem First Additional District Sessions judge, D. Krishna Raja, narrated the incident.

The Special Public Prosecutor (SPP), R. Srinivasan, examined K.R. Latha and R. Akila, then assistant lecturers in the Psychology Department of the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU), Coimbatore, were on the bus with girl students when it was set afire.

The TNAU students, on a 12-day study tour, travelled in two buses — boys in one and the girls in the other. On February 2, 2000, after their visit to the Regional Research Institute at Piyur, the students and four staff members were going to Hogenakkal.

When they stopped at Dharmapuri for lunch, they heard the news of the judgment in the Kodaikanal Pleasant Stay Hotel case in which a Special Court convicted the AIADMK leader, Jayalalithaa.

`Tense situation'

"As the situation in Dharmapuri looked tense, one of our staff members was advised by a sergeant to go either to the District Collectorate or to the Superintendent of Police office. On our way to the Collectorate, a few vehicles were stopped on the left side of the road following a road roko. Our bus also stopped. Then, a person sprinkled petrol inside the bus through the open windows near the front door. We pleaded with the man to show mercy but he ignored us. Then we hurriedly started alighting. At the same time I saw the front row seats in flames. Soon, the fire engulfed the bus. A few girls remained in the bus and were shouting for help. The boys who came in the second bus ran to the rescue of the trapped girls. They opened the window shutters and pulled out the girls... and after a while, when we counted the students, we found three girls, Kokilavani, Hemalatha and Gayathri, missing," Ms. Latha said.

She said that she identified the bodies after fire service personnel put out the flames.

Ms. Akila narrated a similar version. Both wept while narrating the sequence of events.

On a request from the SPP, the witnesses identified Madhu (a) Ravindran (37) (listed as accused no. 3 in the case), as one who poured petrol into the bus. When the SPP asked them who set the bus afire, the witnesses said they could not remember.

The judge examined the burnt bus, which was produced before the court on a request from the SPP during an earlier hearing.

Defence counsel S. Parthasarathy and M.S. Kandasamy cross-examined the witnesses. The judge heard the arguments till 7 p.m.

All 31 accused were present. The police had made heavy security arrangements in the court complex. The next hearing, scheduled for March 22, was postponed to April 5. Further hearings would be conducted on April 8 and11 to 13.

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