Bihar students’ death: CM Nitish Kumar calls on Karunanidhi

The deaths of three students from Bihar and Jharkhand in Annamalai University after a clash with the police, prompted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to speak to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Tuesday seeking protection for those studying in various universities in the state.

Kumar also spoke to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to seek security for students from Bihar and said "anti-Bihari" sentiments should be nipped in the bud.

Security for students from Bihar studying in Chennai should be beefed up, Kumar said and directed the Home Secretary Aamir Subhani and Director General of Police, Neelmani to contact their counterparts in Chennai and inform him about the latest situation.

The deaths during an agitation at Annamalai University in the last two days has caused concern in Patna.

Deemed university campuses across Tamil Nadu have witnessed student unrest over the issue of the derecognition threat issued to 16 institutions in January 2010. In the latest instance, violence was sparked off in the private university in Chidambaram by the death of a student from Jharkhand due to alleged medical negligence after a road mishap.

Authorities at Annamalai University had called in the police following violence in the wee hours of Monday. Three students died in the ensuing melee when they ran to avoid a lathicharge and fell into a canal and drowned. Two of the students were from Bihar and one from Jharkhand. Expressing sorrow, Bihar and Jharkhand governments announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 1.5 lakh each to the bereaved families.

The move came after the parents of Ashish Ranjan, a student of Annamalai Engineering College in Tamil Nadu, complained to the authority that he was missing from the college premises for the past few days.

The bodies of the two students from Bihar were fished out of a canal near the Annamalai University in Chidambaram town Tuesday, two days after protests over their friend's death turned violent as the police baton-charged the agitating youth, police said. A body had been recovered from the canal Monday after some students jumped into it to escape the police batons.

The Annamalai University campus, around 230 km from Chennai, has been tense since Sunday when Gautam Kumar from Bihar was injured in a road accident and was treated in a hospital in the town. At the insistence of his classmates, he was being transported when he developed complications. The vehicle was then taken to Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry where he died.

The body was brought back to Annamalai Nagar in Chidambaram and a group of students from the No rth wanted to meet Vice Chancellor M. Ramanathan in connection with Kumar's death. But Ramanathan said he would meet them at the university campus Monday. The students then went to the university and went on a rampage, damaging property and police were called. Despite warnings by police, the students continued their violent protests and police baton-charged the mob, a police official said.

To escape the police batons, students ran in different directions and couple of them fell into a nearby canal. While the body of Sumit Kumar from Jharkhand was recovered Monday, bodies of two more students from Bihar were fished out of the canal Tuesday, police said.

- Asian Tribune -