In Brief
Three college students died in a bus fire set during mob violence in Tamil Nadu in 2000. Angry party workers, protesting a political leader's conviction, attacked public property. The three accused, caught in the mob frenzy, procured petrol, set the unoccupied bus alight, and fled. A two-judge bench imposed death sentences. The Supreme Court's three-judge review bench commuted these to life imprisonment, finding no premeditation or planning—the crime was spontaneous mob action, not calculated murder. Mitigating factors, including possible rehabilitation, outweighed the brutal method of killing.
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