VELLORE: As many as 95 youth have been arrested with the deadly attack on police personnel in Ambur Town on Saturday night which left 38 police personnel, including women, and a couple of civilians injured in connection with the death of Shameel Ahmed.
The unruly mob turned violent and set two police jeeps, a mini-bus, four two-wheelers and a TASMAC outlet on fire.
The windshields of several government and private buses and an ambulance were damaged in the stone-pelting incident.
Some protestors also ransacked two private hospitals in the vicinity and attacked the Ambur Town Station. Police lathi-charged the protestors at about at about 10 PM. The protestors, however, split up into small groups and hid themselves on top of some houses in Nellikollai, Housing Board and Pudumannai areas and pelted stones indiscriminately at policemen. After reinforcements arrived, police personnel entered Nellikollai and the other areas and brought the situation under control.
Police have arrested as many as 181 persons since the protests began and were taken to an undisclosed place for inquiry and released 86 persons, all under 18 years of age.
The Ambur Town Police registered seven cases against the remaining 105 persons under sections 147, 148, 294 (b), 506 (ii), 353, 324 and 307 of Indian Penal Code. The police have also invoked Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act for assaulting women police personnel and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act 1984 against them for damaging the public property worth over Rs 50 lakh.
They would be produced before the Judicial Magistrate in Ambur and lodged in the central prisons in Vellore, Salem and Cuddalore.
ADGP T K Rajendran, IG (North Zone) M N Manujanatha, DIG of Vellore Range Tamil Chandran and SPs P K Senthil Kumari (Vellore), R Ponni (Tiruvannamalai) and J Mutharasi (Kancheepuram) camped in Ambur Town to ensure that the simmering tension did not get out of control and normalcy is restored.
Over 600 police personnel roped in from north zone have also been deployed in the sensitive areas, including around the Housing Board, Nellikollai and OAR Theatre.
Final rites amid tight security
As many as 38 police personnel, including women police, sustained injuries in the clash. Of them, two policemen with grievous injuries have been admitted to Christian Medical College, Vellore, while others were admitted to government hospitals and primary health centres in Vaniyambadi, Gudiyattam, Ambur, Madhanur, Pallikonda and Vellore. The final rites of Shameel Ahmed were conducted in a mosque in Nellikollai around 3 am on Sunday with tight security. The body of Ahmed was brought from the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in an ambulance reaching Ambur at about 2 am. Around 50 women protested and tried to surround the Tahsildar office in Ambur Town demanding the release of the persons arrested, claiming the persons arrested were innocents. They withdrew the protest after the revenue and police officials assured them that they would release the persons not involved in the clash.