Two hurt in another bus route war in Presidency

CHENNAI: In fresh campus clashes that broke out between Presidency College students affiliated to different MTC bus routes, two youth sustained serious injuries on Monday.In the students’ union elections held in the autonomous college in August, the ‘6D’ group had bitten the dust in a tussle with the ‘27H’ alliance. Asked about the strange phenomenon, college principal P S Raghuraman said there were some 15 routes and the union elections were held on the basis of route affiliations. “This has been going on for several years,” he had claimed.Newly elected general secretary P Ramki of 29A group — member of 27H alliance — echoed him, saying students of all government colleges in the city were organised on similar lines.In the first week of October, all the pent-up resentment came to the fore on a minor issue and it soon became a free-for-all when the 6D and 27H groups picked up wooden sticks, rods and stones lying around and pounced on the other, until the college authorities suspended classes and called the police. On October 19, V Vijayasekhar (20), a second year BA history student of the college affiliated to the 6D faction, was caught wh-ile trying to smuggle a foot-and-half long knife into the campus. Police had expre-ssed concern that the discovery of a weapon showed that the ‘bus route’ rivalry among students was assuming serious proportions.On December 14, the bus route rivalry in Government Arts College in Nandanam took a violent turn, when a clash broke out between two gangs. K Arun Kumar, a second-year BA student of the college, was chased and knifed in broad daylight on Anna Salai. Three students were arrested in connection with the incident.On December 23, clashes broke out again in Presidency College in which a 6D group student Nagaraj was stabbed with a knife. Two students of 27H faction, Abbas Ali and Ramesh, were arrested in the case. “The latest attacks appear to be an act of revenge,” Assistant Commissioner (Triplicane) S Senthil Kumaran told Express.On Monday, the college reopened after Christmas holidays and the 6D faction picked up a quarrel with their archrivals on a flimsy pretext. About 50 students on either side clashed violently in which Prasad (20), a BA first year political science student, and Dhanasekar (21), a BSc first year zoology student, of 27H group were seriously injured and hospitalised.A heavy posse of police personnel was posted outside the college following the incident.