Festival of South Asia

Appeal to Save Lives of Dalit Youth INDIAN human rights activists, academics, jurists and authors are trying to save the lives of two dalit youth, Gantela Vijayawardhan (25) and Satuluri Chalapati (24), who were sentenced to death for killing 23 bus passengers during an attempted robbery in 1993. The youth have no previous criminal record. In their attempt to rob the passengers of a local bus in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, they had set fire to a can of petrol. In the ensuing fire, 23 bus passengers were killed.