Tamil Nadu varsity closed after death of two students

Tension prevailed at Annamalai University in Chidambaram, 240 km from Chennai, on Tuesday after firefighters recovered bodies of two more engineering students — Ashish Ranjan Kumar and M Subrat Raj — from a nearby sewerage canal.

To prevent more untoward incidents on campus, authorities have shut down the university indefinitely. “Students have been asked to vacate hostels. The university has been shut down indefinitely. Security has also been beefed up and police personnel have been deployed on campus,” university sources told DNA.

Engineering students Gautham Kumar and Sumeeth Kumar had died in separate incidents on Sunday. While Gautham, whose two-wheeler collided with a lorry, succumbed at JIPMER, Pondicherry, Sumeeth drowned in a canal while police lathi-charged agitating students.

Gautham had to be shifted to Pondicherry as doctors at the university medical college hospital did not have facilities to treat him. To protest the lack of facilities, 300 students, mostly from North India, went on a rampage on campus.

The agitating students first attacked vice-chancellor M Ramanathan’s home. They then vented their ire at the hospital and damaged three ambulances, a jeep and 50 two-wheelers. Police resorted to lathicharge when the students reportedly attacked a few patients in the hospital.

This is the second time in three years that students have gone on a rampage in the university.