The police lathicharged a group of students of D.D. Medical College, Tiruvallur, and their parents when they tried to stage a road roko near Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University on Saturday evening.
Some students and parents suffered injuries and were taken to hospital.
For the past 25 days, the students, along with some parents, have been staging a sit-in at the University seeking the State government’s intervention to obtain Medical Council of India recognition for D.D. Medical. The college was derecognised in 2011.
The police forcibly removed the protesting students from the University campus a number of times in the past two weeks. They were arrested, lodged in marriage halls and released later. Each time, however, the students returned to the University to protest.
“On Saturday morning, the police arrested us. At 6 p.m., we were released but prevented from entering the University. So, we tried to stage a road roko. The police resorted to lathicharge and many of us, including some parents were injured,” said a student.