The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Police, students clash on campus

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Police, students clash on campus

By A.V. Ragunathan

CUDDALORE, NOV. 23. The death of a third-year engineering student due to brain fever sparked violence on the Annamalai University campus and resulted in a pitched battle between a group of students and the police in the early hours today.

The police lathicharged and dispersed a 500-strong group of students, who threw stones injuring eight personnel, including a sub-inspector, and caused extensive damage to university property.

The windscreen of the jeep of the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Palani, was smashed.

On a complaint by the Registrar, M. Rathinasabapathy, the Annamalai Nagar police arrested eight students.

The Chidambaram Judicial Magistrate-I remanded them to judicial custody for 15 days.

The Vice-Chancellor, L.B. Venkatrangan, declared an indefinite closure of the university, and all hostellers, numbering 8,500, were asked to vacate. The on-going semester examinations stood cancelled.

Doubts over treatment

It is learnt that G. Sivasakthi, an inmate of the Cauvery Illam hostel, went to the Rajah Muthiah Medical College Hospital at Annamalai Nagar on Monday morning for treatment. He was administered an intravenous injection and given drugs.

On his return to the room, the student fell unconscious and his parents were informed.

On their plea that the treatment be continued, as they could not afford to take him elsewhere, the doctors took a CT scan and found that the student was suffering from acute brain fever and put him on a ventilator, but in vain.

Last night, a handful of students assembled in front of the Vice-Chancellor's residence and requested him to put off Tuesday's examination to condole with the death of Sivasakthi.

Though their demand was conceded, a large number of students soon gathered there, voicing doubts over the treatment given to Sivasakthi.

The Registrar and the Medical Superintendent apprised them of the condition of Sivasakthi and the treatment given but the students were unconvinced.

By then the DSP-led police force arrived there and asked the students to disperse. But they soon regrouped and allegedly threw stones and overturned two jeeps and a van belonging to the university. They also damaged the platinum jubilee arch, electrical fittings at the Vice-Chancellor's residence, glass panes of the aquarium and computers. When the students turned unruly, police enforcements were rushed.

The Deputy Inspector-General, Sanjay Arora, the Villupuram Superintendent of Police, K. Periaiah, (Cuddalore in-charge), came along with them. On seeing the police force, the students ran away, leaving behind scores of two-wheelers (on which they came in twos and threes).

The university authorities took possession of the vehicles for identifying the troublemakers.

Meanwhile, Sivasakthi's parents took the body to their native place, Chozhatharam at Sethiathope, 35 km away.

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