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Jaya supporter burns himself to death

A supporter of All India Anna DMK leader, J Jayalalitha, burned himself to death on Thursday to protest her conviction in a corruption case, even as violence spread to all parts of the state. Over 4,000 AIADMK workers have been taken into preventive custody.

The 30-year-old supporter of Jayalalitha set himself on fire and died in Villupuram district to protest Wednesday's court verdict which convicted the politician in a case of corruption, the police in Madras said.

Wednesday's verdict sparked violence which was led by Jayalalitha's AIADMK party supporters, who set fire to a university bus killing three students and attacked state buildings and the police elsewhere in Tamil Nadu.

Jayalalitha, however, without expressing any remorse for the deaths said that the court verdict had generated a wave of sympathy in the state and that it would benefit her party in the forthcoming elections.

The police in Madras said thousands of university students today staged protest rallies against the killing of the three young women by AIADMK arsonists and demanded action.

The authorities shut schools and colleges for Friday to mourn the deaths, the police said, adding that anti-Jayalalitha protests led by students also flared elsewhere in the region.

A local court on Wednesday sentenced Jayalalitha to one year's hard labour for favouring a hotel owner while she was chief minister of Tamil Nadu from 1991-96.

The 52-year-old former movie star, meanwhile, said she would appeal against the sentence in a higher court.

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