ADMK attack — TN students demand probe and arrests

They have demanded a probe as well as the immediate arrest of those behind the girls’ death. The state government joined the mourning by announcing a holiday for all educational institutions on Friday. Meanwhile, bodiesof the three victims – Gayatri, Kokilavani and Hemalatha – were handed over to their families after autopsy.

The police today arrested over 5,000 people, including AIADMK leaders and former minister and party propaganda secretary E Madhusudhanan in connection with the violence following the order sentencing Jayalalitha to one-year rigorous imprisonment. Four people have been held for the burning of the bus in which the three girls died, including a minor AIADMK functionary. Hunt is on for D K Rajendran, an AIADMK panchayat union secretary and 15 others who are absconding.

Jayalalitha, however, again sought to deny her party’s hand in the arson that rocked the state. She claimed that the ruling DMK was inciting the violence to tarnish the AIADMK. She also claimed that the court verdict in the Pleasant Stay Hotel case was not a “setback” but “will generate a lot of sympathy” for her in the coming by-polls. She asserted that all preparations had been made to appeal against the verdict. “In the finalanalysis,” she declared, “dharma will always emerge triumphant. The evil ones will be trounced.”

However, Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Arcot Veerasamy claimed on Thursday that Jayalalitha had instructed party functionaries in meetings over the past one month to go on the rampage if she was convicted in any of the numerous cases against her. He said it was the AIADMK which was responsible for the death of the three girls.

In the memorandum that they submitted to the District Collector, the Coimbatore students sought Rs 10-lakh compensation and a government job each for the relatives of the three dead girls and Rs 2 lakh for the six injured. A commission of inquiry, they demanded, should also look into the delay in rescue of the girls, who burnt to death even as private TV channels were present recording the event.

Later, nine girl students who managed to escape from the ill-fated bus came to TNAU. On seeing their friends, they broke down. Students were seen hugging each other andcrying.

Narrating the horrific death of their three college mates, they recounted that as they were returning from Dharmapuri, a group of rioters, seeing that their bus had only girls, started chasing it and throwing stones. Before the stunned girls could react, they had lobbed petrol bombs inside. The girls said one of the doors of the bus was defective and couldn’t be opened.

The situation is returning to normal in the state and the bus services were suspended till Thursday morning to prevent further loss of life and damage to property have been restored.