Crackers thrown inside Chennai college campus during students clash, sparks political verbal volleys

CHENNAI: Students of Guru Nanak College, Chennai, clashed inside the campus in Velachery on Monday over petty quarrels among different groups. Never would they have imagined that the crackers thrown during the clash to create a scare would become a political talk point for the Opposition by the end of the day.

"It should not be called a bomb. It is a cracker that is used predominantly during temple festivals in villages," a senior police officer with Greater Chennai Police told DT Next.

Additional Commissioner of Police (South), Prem Anand Sinha said that two students had carried the crackers and one was burst. "No one was injured. Some sections of the media portrayed it as country bombs. It is not a country bomb. But crackers. We have registered a case and have arrested one person. No other weapons were used in the clash between students."

Prem Anand Sinha further stressed that the students had burst the crackers just to create a scare among students.

Preliminary investigations revealed that there was tension simmering between a section of first-year and second-year students in the college for the past few days, which escalated into a brawl on Monday.

Third-year students too joined in the clash on Monday leaving some students injured.

Police have registered a case under section 285 IPC (negligent conduct with fire or combustible matter), and have arrested one student.

The clarification from City Police, however, came only after the Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami and State BJP leader K Annamalai alleged that a country bomb was hurled following a fight among students of the city college.

They charged that the shocking incident in broad daylight in the State capital is a sign of lawlessness in the State.

"There is nothing more shameful than this to the state government," EPS said in his social media post.

He condemned the incident and demanded the DMK government to conduct a thorough inquiry into the incident to unearth whether the persons involved in the incidents were students and what was the motive behind such an attack.

Annamalai charged that bomb culture entered into the State after the DMK came to power. "Now, such culture has caught up with the college students, and it's a cause of concern. This shows that Law and Order hit a new low in the State," he said.

He demanded the CM to take appropriate measures to prevent such incidents in the future.