9 students held for hurling firecracker on Chennai college campus

CHENNAI: Nine people were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the firecracker blast on their college premises that caused panic among fellow students, police said. In a swift action, the college management dismissed about 18 students for allegedly indulging in a clash on August 21 and bringing disrepute to the institution.

Nine students from the third year and an equal number from the second year have been dismissed, according to an official communication from the college. Following a previous discord between two groups of students in the college, both groups gathered on campus on Monday resulting in an argument between them.

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All of a sudden a student flung the "firecracker and fled," a senior police official said. Denying that the student had flung a country bomb, as speculated in a section of media, the official said the miscreant used a "country firecracker used in temple festivals in the state to frighten the opposing group of students. The alert security personnel at the college caught hold of him when he attempted to flee and handed him over to the authorities, he said.

"No weapons were used by the students. A section of media falsely reported that a country bomb was hurled, but it was not true," Additional Commissioner of Police Prem Anand Sinha said. The police registered a case under section 285 IPC (dealing with fire or any combustible matter so as to endanger human life) and arrested two students on Monday. Seven others were arrested today.