Chennai, March 3 (IANS) The bodies of two students from Bihar were fished out of a canal near the Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu’s Chidambaram town Tuesday, two days after protests over their friend’s death turned violent as the police baton-charged the agitating youth, police said.
A body had been recovered from the canal Monday after some students jumped into it to escape the police batons.

The Annamalai University campus, around 230 km from here, has been tense since Sunday when Gautam Kumar from Bihar was injured in a road accident and was treated in a hospital in the town.

At the insistence of his classmates, he was being transported here when he developed complications. The vehicle was then taken to Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry where he died.

The body was brought back to Annamalai Nagar in Chidambaram and a group of students from north India wanted to meet Vice Chancellor M. Ramanathan in connection with Kumar’s death. But Ramanathan said he would meet them at the university campus Monday.

The students then went to the university and went on a rampage, damaging property and police were called. Despite warnings by police, the students continued their violent protests and police baton-charged the mob, a police official said.

To escape the police batons, students ran in different directions and couple of them fell into a nearby canal.

While the body of Sumit Kumar from Jharkhand was recovered Monday, bodies of two more students from Bihar were fished out of the canal Tuesday, police said.