‘This mall is our turf’: College students clash inside mall

CHENNAI: After clashing on roads, buses and trains, City college students who attack each other over petty rivalry and turf war, clashed inside a mall in Royapettah on Friday.

According to a complaint filed with the Anna Salai police by an injured student, the students of a government college in Nandanam had picked up a fight with him and his friends by claiming that the mall is their turf and that other college students are not allowed there.

According to the police, M Prabhu (19) of Nerkundram, a first-year sociology student at a college in Royapettah had gone to the food court in the mall two of his friends. The trio were at the food court on the third floor when a gang approached them and rounded them up.

One of them grabbed Prabhu’s shirt and asked his college ID card and when he replied that he has not been issued one yet by the college authorities, one of the students from the opposite gang slapped Prabhu.

Police quoted Prabhu as saying that the other students were wearing the ID card of a government college in Nandanam. The other gang then pushed Prabhu and his friends to the ground and started assaulting them, much to the chagrin of the public and the food court staff.

Police said that some of the chairs in the food court were damaged in the clash between the students.

“The other group of students had threatened Prabhu and his friends to not visit the mall again and warned them of dire consequences, ” a police officer said.

Prabhu’s father is a load man in Koyambedu market. Based on his complaint, Anna Salai Police registered a case under various sections of IPC including 147 (rioting), 506 (1) (criminal intimidation) among others.

Anna Salai Police have arrested three students, Rahul, Harish and Diwakar- all 20 years old. They were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.