Chennai: 31 including 9 juveniles held for bus day violence

Chennai: A day after the violence on Pachaiyappa’s college campus in which college principal S. Kaliraj and two policemen were injured, police arrested 31 persons, most of them former students.

“Of those held, 10 of them are former students, six of them outsiders, six of them from other colleges, nine juveniles and a second year student of Pachayappa’s college are among those held,” a police officer said.

Police said they are rounding up more persons in connection with Friday’s ruckus inside the campus. The attack on the principal and the cops were an extension of the bus day celebrations to mark the reopening of college after summer holidays.
Students had hijacked three MTC buses, riding atop rooftops, creating a public menace before entering the campus around 12 pm.

However, tension started to flare up between cops and the student groups when the students vowed to observe another of their ‘traditions’- garlanding the statue of Pachaiyappa Mudhaliar in the campus before going to their classes. In the melee, stones were hurled from the ‘students’ group, which hit the principal and the cops.