The 25 persons sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment in the February 2000 sensational bus burning case by a sessions court in Salem, filed appeals against their convictions in the Madras High Court on Friday.
Besides the 25, first additional sessions judge D Krishnaraja had awarded the death penalty to three persons responsible for the gruesome incident, where three students of the Tamil Nadu Agricultral University were charred to death and 18 injured when irate All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supporters set fire to the bus at Dharmapuri on February 3, 2000 following conviction of party supremo Jayalalithaa in the Pleasant Stay hotel case.
In all, 31 persons were accused. While one person had died during the course of the trial, two were acquitted. Nedu alias Nedunchezhian, the then secretary of the Dharmapuri town unit of the AIADMK, Madhu alias Ravichandran, then town MGR forum functionary and P Muniappan, former panchayat president, were awarded the death penalty.
Muniappan has already moved the high court against his sentence.