Buses torched, 3 charred to death

Buses torched, 3 charred to death
ENS & AGENCIES

Chennai, FBRUARY 2: Jayalalitha may have had little choice other than accepting the verdict with silence but her workers went berserk.Three students were charred to death inside a bus and five women students suffered serious burns as protests by ADMK workers against the conviction took an ugly turn in Dharmapuri district.

Official sources told PTI that the students belonging to the Agriculture University, Coimbatore, were returning home this afternoon after touring a research institute when suspected ADMK men hurled petrol-filled bottles into the bus after lighting them, setting the bus ablaze. The charred bodies were still in the bus stationed at the town terminus, they added.

Meanwhile, another bus was torched at Harur, also in Dharmapuri district, after its passengers were asked to get down by alleged ADMK activists, the sources said. In Chennai, 22 Metro Transport Corporation buses were damaged and 23 persons hurt. Police arrested 317 partymen. Traffic was disrupted on Rajaji Salai, Kamarajar Salaiand Anna Salai near the Anand Theatre, for some time. A few partymen squatted on Lloyds Road outside the AIADMK party office. They were arrested.

As news of Jayalalitha's conviction spread, AIADMK workers in different parts of the city and the outskirts went on a riot attacking public property. Government buses were stoned and damaged in Kundrathur, Tambaram, Mangadu and Tondiarpet. In Aminjikarai, a bus was partially gutted.As reports of violence trickled in, schools in Royapuram packed children home. Shops on Rajaji Salai remained closed and elsewhere, as the news spread, shops downed shutters fearing violence.