Confirming the death sentence awarded by a lower court in Salem to Neduchezhian, Ravindran and Muniappan, a division bench comprising Justice D Murugesan and Justice B Periya Karuppiah held that the prosecution had proved the charges beyond reasonable doubt.

The bench also confirmed the conviction of 25 others in the case. But the High Court awarded maximum two years sentence to all of them instead of seven years imprisonment pronounced by the lower court on various counts.

The High Court ordered that the sentences should run concurrently and not consecutively as held by the trial court.

As per the directive of the bench, the 25 accused would undergo two years RI in this case.

The Bench dismissed all the appeals filed by the accused.

The accused were chargesheeted in a case in which a Tamil Nadu Agricultural University bus in Dharmapuri in Salem district was set on fire by AIADMK symathisers protesting a judgement by a special court convicting and sentencing former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to one year RI in the Pleasant Stay Hotel case.

Three girl students were burnt alive in the incident.