Date:16/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/16/stories/2008111658830100.htm

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Law college students target BSP leader

S. Vijay Kumar

CHENNAI: A group of students of the Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College on Saturday attempted to attack a Bahujan Samaj Party functionary near the General Hospital. Police personnel stationed there intervened and escorted him to safety.

BSP leader Rajappa of Pallavaram was on his way to see a friend admitted to the hospital, when the students, seeing the party flag on his vehicle, surrounded him. The police team sensed trouble and acted fast.

Irked by the police providing security to the BSP leader, the students staged a road blockade in front of the hospital and stoned a Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus. Two passengers were injured. Traffic was disrupted for a while. Twenty-three students were arrested. They were released in the evening. “The police acted in time to rescue Mr. Rajappa from a possible attack. The students were taken into custody for blocking traffic and damaging a State-owned bus,” Commissioner of Police K. Radhakrishnan told The Hindu. A team of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, led by Director (Economic and Social Development Wing) V.K. Rathi, arrived here from New Delhi on Saturday.

The team went to Government Royapettah Hospital and recorded a statement from Chithirai Selvan, a Dalit student injured in the recent clash between students, police sources said. BSP State secretary Selva Perunthagai and others representing the Federation of Dalit Organisations met the Commissioner of Police and submitted a petition, seeking a fair investigation into Wednesday’s clash. They said a group of Caste Hindu students had attacked Dalit students, who had objected to the printing of provocative handbills, on the college campus. They demanded registration of a case under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 against those who attacked the Dalit students.

The special teams formed to round up those involved in the clash arrested R. Raja (18) at Kurunjipadi in Cuddalore district, C. Sivakadiravan (23) in Madurai and Premnath (20) in Thanjavur. They had allegedly attacked some students during the clash. Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order) T. Rajendran said adequate police personnel had been deployed in caste-sensitive areas in the southern districts.

Corrections and Clarifications

* * S.S. Sharma, Joint secretary, was the leader of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes team which visited the Royapettah Hospital to meet a student injured in the clashes in the Law College in Chennai. The team leader's name was wrongly mentioned as V.K. Rathi, Director, in the Chennai report, "Law college students target BSP leader" (November 16, 2008). This was based on information given by police sources. The correction follows a communication from the Director, NCSC, Chennai.