Day after clash, top cop shifted [Quick Reaction... But late Action]

Even the government shown it's (re)action just after the bad incident at Dr Ambedkar Law College, Chennai.... it's too late...
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CHENNAI: The city police commissioner was shunted out, and a joint commissioner and a deputy commissioner were transferred as heads rolled on Thursday when the DMK government moved into damage control mode after televised evidence exposed shocking police inaction during a group clash in the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law College in the city on Wednesday.

R Sekar, who took charge as city police commissioner only on May 31, will now head the civil supplies-CID in place of K Radhakrishnan, additional director general of police, who has been named the new police chief. Joint commissioner (north zone) Abhay Kumar Singh and Flower Bazaar deputy commissioner N Asiammal, under whose jurisdiction the law college falls, were also transferred.

Radhakrishnan told TOI he came to know about the violence only through the media. “I am studying the case and will take the right measures,” he said.

As the opposition took the government to task in the assembly and sought the chief minister’s resignation, law minister Durai Murugan rejected the demand, but said a judicial inquiry, headed by retired high court judge P Shanmugam, would be ordered. College principal KK Sridev was suspended, as were the assistant police commissioner (high court) Narayana Murthi and Esplanade police inspector Sekar Babu.

Images of students being mercilessly beaten up, even as policemen stood watching, were greeted with shock and revulsion across the state. Replying on behalf of the government in the absence of chief minister M Karunanidhi, Durai Murugan admitted that no one would ever accept the premise that the police should remain mute spectators until they received orders to take action.

There was no mention of the impending change in the top echelons of the city police when the matter came up in the Assembly in the forenoon. But as the day wore on, the government could no more be seen as not taking action, as TV channels kept repeating footage of policemen watching the spectacle. That Sekar failed to visit the trouble spot or give instructions to stop the violence did not go unnoticed.

7 students booked for attempt to murder

TNN

CHENNAI: Official sources said the chief minister’s office asked for a list of senior officers who could be appointed to the city police commissioner’s post. The decision to transfer Sekar was made after home secretary S Malathi met Karunanidhi in the evening. Police sources said only the name of K Radhakrishnan, additional director general of police, was considered.

Four sub-inspectors of police, who were also witness to the violence, have been transferred out of the city. Seven law students were booked under various criminal charges, including Sec 307 of IPC (attempt to murder), and sent to jail, Durai Murugan said.
The four students who were injured in the clash were being given round-the-clock medical attention, he said. Apprehensive about the violence spreading, the government closed all law colleges in the state indefinitely and postponed the ongoing semester exams. The law college hostel in Kellys here was also closed.

Tension filled the air in other law colleges with students staging protests and boycotting the semester exams. At the Coimbatore government law college, students entered examinations halls and smashed furniture, window panes and electrical fittings. The frenzied students went on a rampage for nearly an hour, but surrendered as the police prepared to charge them.

Source : TOI