In Salem, a bus called Kokilavani

A year after his 20-year-old daughter was burnt alive in a bus, Veerasamy decided to keep her memory going

A day after the dramatic verdict by the Salem court in Tamil Nadu, sentencing three AIADMK partymen to death, N P Veerasamy waited anxiously at the bustling Moganur bus-stand. Kokilavani Transport (GVT) was expected at 9.30 am. Ten minutes later, a green mini bus trundled into the empty stand. Passengers poured out, some recognising Veerasamy and congratulating him. For Veerasamy, the bus was a reassuring sight. He patted it like he would his favourite daughter. In fact, he had bought the bus a year after Kokilavani, his only daughter, was charred to death on February 2, 2000, when her college bus was torched by protesting AIADMK men.

While the skeletal remains of a bus (Material Object M.O. 2, TN 38 C 5550) in the Salem court complex is a grim reminder of the gruesome killing of his daughter seven years ago, ironically, it is the green mini bus, plying 19 km between Moganur (18 km from Namakkal) and Kaatuputhur village, which gives Veerasamy solace.

Every year, on Kokilavani’s death anniversary, passengers are given free ride in the bus on all its six trips during the day. Though it runs on losses these days, he stubbornly holds on to it.

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“From last year, travel is free on my bus during Kokilavani’s birth anniversary as well,” said Veerasamy, tiredly wiping away tears. It had been a hard struggle when he almost single-handedly and relentlessly ensured that the case against 32 AIADMK men reached its logical conclusion.

On Friday, Salem First Additional District Sessions judge D Krishna Raja awarded capital punishment to the three AIADMK men — Nedu alias Nedunchezhian (41), then secretary of the AIADMK’s Dharmapuri unit; Madhu alias Ravindran (44), who was MGR Peravai (Forum) functionary then; and Muniappan (52), a former panchayat president — convicted under IPC Sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder).

Twenty-five other accused, who staged a dharna at the town’s entrance, had prevented the fire tender from reaching the blazing bus in Bharatipuram in which Kokilavani and her two classmates Gayathri and Hemalatha were trapped. They were all sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for seven years. The AIADMK men were protesting J Jayalalithaa’s conviction in a corruption case.

Hemalatha’s parents live in Tambaram near Chennai and Gayathri’s parents in Cuddalore district in north Tamil Nadu.

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There should have been some cheer or at least an air of triumph at the Veerasamy residence, an apartment in A S Pettai in Namakkal, a little town about 50 km from Salem, which was the scene of the dramatic court verdict. But for Veerasamy (62), his wife Saraswathi and two sons, Ilangovan and Vivekanandan, not even a stringent verdict against the perpetrators of the crime against Kokilavani could ease their hearts. She had been the ‘chella pillai’ (favourite child) of the family, teasing her father for his fears about her safety, mocking her aunts for decking themselves with gold jewellery and taunting her two male cousins about which one would marry her.

Rarely did the orthodox Chettiar families of Tamil Nadu permit their daughters to go to college. Kokilavani (20 when she died) was doing her second-year graduation in Agriculture at the Coimbatore-based Tamil Nadu Agriculture University. “She hoped to complete her PhD as well,” said Veerasamy.

Forty-four girl students and two teachers were travelling in the fateful bus when it was set on fire. The bus carrying 44 male students came behind, but escaped attack. The students had completed their 10-day study tour and were returning to Coimbatore after a leisure trip to Hogenekkal in Dharmapuri district. It had been a month since her family last saw Kokilavani as she stayed at the hostel in Coimbatore.

Veerasamy, who saw a 12 noon television news about the adverse verdict against Jayalalithaa on February 2, 2000, cut short his business (in poultry) in Mayavaram, 200 km from Namakkal, to rush back to his family, guessing there would be trouble en route. He missed the news two hours later, which showed the blazing bus in which his daughter had been trapped and charred to death. He changed several buses and finally reached home happily, only to be told the news about Kokilavani.