M A I N   N E W S

Over 4,000 AIADMK workers arrested
Protests over girls’ burning

CHENNAI, Feb 3 (UNI, PTI) — Four AIADMK workers, including a party functionary in Dharmapuri, were arrested today in connection with the burning alive of three college girls in yesterday’s violence in the wake of conviction of the AIADMK General Secretary, Ms J. Jayalalitha, in a corruption case.

Sealed suitcases being produced at a special court in Chennai. — PTI

Students protest against the killing of three girl students of the Agricultural University of Coimbatore at a demonstration in Chennai on Thursday. — PTI

Elsewhere in the state, more than 4,600 persons, mostly AIADMK volunteers, including former minister and party propaganda secretary E. Madhusudhanan, have been arrested in connection with widespread violence, even as Ms Jayalalitha accused the ruling DMK of unleashing violence to besmirch the fair name of her party.

Meanwhile, the police had spread the dragnet for 16 persons, including D.P. Rajendran, another AIADMK district functionary, prime suspect in the bus burning incident, which claimed the lives of the three girls.

The state, rocked by incidents like stoning and burning of buses, was incident-free today.

Madhusudhanan was arrested in connection with the incidents near the special court, which convicted Ms Jayalalitha. He was remanded in judicial custody and lodged in the Vellore central prison.

Suspecting foul play in the torching of the bus, Ms Jayalalitha demanded a CBI probe into the incident. The ruling DMK the police and a private Tamil satellite television channel had launched a disinformation campaign to bring a bad name to her party, she alleged.

However, undeterred by her conviction, she asserted that it was not a setback to her. On the other hand, it would only generate a lot of sympathy for her in the February 17 byelections to three assembly seats in the state, she claimed.

Countering Ms Jayalalitha, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister and DMK treasurer, Mr Arcot N. Veerasamy charged her with instigating the violence in the state yesterday after her conviction.

Leaders of various political parties, including the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) President, Mr G.K. Moopanar, have condemned the barbaric burning alive of the college girls and urged the government to immediately bring to book the culprits.

Meanwhile, six girls of Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, who sustained burns in the torching of the bus, were today admitted to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.

Heart-rending scenes were witnessed when the parents of the three undergraduate girls, who perished in the inferno, received their charred bodies.

The staff and students of Tamil Nadu Agriculture University and various other colleges staged demonstrations and took out processions in different parts of the state in protest against the Dharmapuri incident.

The Tamil Nadu Government has declared a holiday tomorrow for all educational institutions in the state to mourn the tragic death of the three girls.

In a related development, a 30-year-old AIADMK sympathiser committed suicide by setting himself afire in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu today on hearing about the conviction of Ms Jayalalitha, while a grief-stricken student in Coimbatore tried to kill himself in the same way to condemn the killing of three students yesterday, the police said.

Velayutham, a coolie, unable to bear the prospect of Ms Jayalalitha going to jail, set himself afire early today, succumbing to the burns later.

A Coimbatore report said Madesh, a second year student of arts, was so overcome by emotion during a condolence meeting organised at Government Arts College there that he suddenly doused himself with kerosene. However, he was prevented by other students from burning himself.

Meanwhile, a special judge today began the marathon exercise of identifying jewellery seized from the residence of Ms Jayalalitha as part of the trial in the case relating to accumulation of unaccounted wealth while she was Chief Minister during 1991-96.

Prosecution witness Vasudevan, a Customs Department appraiser, who had valued the ornaments between December 9 and 12, 1996, informed the court that he had scrutinised 468 pieces of jewellery and had put its total value at nearly Rs 4 crore.