Dharmapuri bus burning case: Justice not done, says Kokilavani's father

Namakkal: Expressing shock and anger at the setting free of the three accused in the February 2000 Dharmapuri bus burning case, the father of one of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) students who perished in that fire, said here on Tuesday that the remission of life-sentence for them "is unjust".

"Honesty and justice have all but vanished in this case,”lamented Veerasamy, father of the girl student victim Kokulavani, speaking to reporters here a day after the three accused in the case were released from the Vellore central prison on a order of the State government based on the Governor accepting its recommendation for remission of sentence.

The unimaginably shocking and mindless act of arson in which the bus carrying TNAU students went up in flames near Dharmapuri that year, was triggered allegedly by AIADMK volunteers who went amok following the former Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa sentenced by the lower court in the Pleasant Stay Hotel case that year. She was later acquitted in appeal.

A visibly upset Veerasamy said the Kokilavani's mother who was bed-ridden since the tragedy overtook their family, said his wife too passed away last year after a lot of misery and trauma the family underwent.

"There is no democracy here, it is all dictatorship,”he fumed asking how the State government could ask the Governor to reconsider his earlier decision that the three accused in this case could not be set free,”said Veerasamy. "Justice has not been done to the untimely and cruel death of three women students,”he added. "The release of the three accused pains us a lot,”rounded off Veerasamy.