Law College Students clashed
Caste politics seems to be rising in the Coimbatore Law College with tension prevailing on the premises after two groups of students belonging to different castes clashed on Saturday.According to police, four students were injured in the clash. Both the groups levelled charges against each other and staged road-roko in different parts of the city. The police report said, the clash broke out between a group of students led by Mathiazhagan and another group led by Satish Kumar. The former’s group had accosted Satish Kumar’s younger brother Raghu, a first year law student, and questioned him regarding his failure to join them in the rail-roko agitation organised a few days ago to protest over the SC/ST scholarship issue. On information, Satish Kumar went for his brother’s help. Then, a clash broke out with both groups levelling charges against each other. Following this, Satish Kumar’s faction staged a road-roko in front of the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital demanding the arrest of Mathiazhagan and others, while Mathiazhagan group staged a road-roko in front of the law college.Police took around 58 members of the Mathiazhagan group into preventive custody.Dalits targeted: The district president of the Students Federation of India (SFI) A Karim told this website's newspaper that Dalit students were being targeted and beaten up by the rival faction for over a year now. “We have held a series of protests and taken up the issue with the district Collector and Superintendent of Police,” he said.On Saturday’s clash, Karim contradicted the police version and said, Mathiazhagan was trying to start his two-wheeler when Satish Kumar and others accosted him and later, attacked him with an iron rod. He sustained injuries and was hospitalised, said Karim.
