I am against capital punishment: M Karunanidhi

Chennai, Dec 21: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today reiterated that he was against capital punishment. Answering questions at a press conference at the party headquarters 'Anna Arivalayam', the Chief Minister when asked about death sentences to three AIADMK functionaries in the Dharmapuri bus burning case said he did not wish to comment on the case in particular.

''Generally I am opposed to captial punishment'', he said. ''I don't approve of it. I have said it many times'', he remarked. It may be recalled that the Salem First Additional District and Sessions Judge Manickam on Dec 20 passed orders that the three AIADMK functionaries convicted in the bus burning case be sent to the gallows on January 10.

The death sentence to the convicted AIADMK partymen was awarded in the case in which three girl students of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University were burnt to death in February 2000 after the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was convicted and sentenced to one year jail term in the Kodaikanal Pleasant Stay Hotel case. It was one of the corruption cases filed against Ms Jayalalithaa by the erstwhile DMK government.

UNI