Violence erupted on Sunday near Kallakurichi as protesters, demanding justice for the death of a girl student, went on a rampage and set fire to vehicles, indulged in stone-pelting and ransacked and vandalised her school.
Police opened fire in the air to restrain the violent mobs and prohibitory orders were clamped. With the arrival of police reinforcements from nearby regions, the situation gradually returned to normal.
The investigation into the girl's death was tranferred to the CB-CID, Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu told reporters in Kallakurichi.
As many as as 70 men who were involved in the violence and 2 men and a woman holding senior positions in the school management have all been arrested, Babu said.
Those from the school have been held in connection with the girl's death, he said. Answering a question, he ruled out intelligence failure.
As many as 52 police personnel, including officials like DIG (Villupuram) M Pandian, were injured.
Police showed restraint and handled the situation deftly, he said and added that such exemplary handling of the situation ensured that there were no loss of lives.
Chief Minister M K Stalin assured people that persons found guilty in the matter would be punished.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam top leader and former Chief Minister K Palaniswami blamed the police, State government and district administration for negligence and failing to act on time.
"Chief Minister Stalin is fully responsible for this. Had the government ensured prompt action against the school, the situation would not have slipped out of hands," Palaniswami said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party accused the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam regime of ineptness.
State Home Secretary K Phanindra Reddy and Director General of Police Sylendra Babu rushed to Kallakurichi from Chennai and inspected the school that bore the burnt of agitators' anger.
Babu said a case has been booked for offences including violence, damage to property, unlawful assembly and attacking police personnel.
The top police official said based on video footage, those who instigated the violence have been identified and more people connected to it would be held soon.
The vandalism in school would be separately probed into and every aspect like the suspected role of an outfit in mobilising people using social media would all be probed into, he said.
Reddy said the government is determined to clear all suspicions in connection with the girl's death.
People should not believe rumours and resort to violence, he said.
When asked on the announcement of an association of private schools that institutions affiliated to it would not work on Monday as a mark of protest against vandalising the school here, the home secretary told reporters that generalising the scenario is not correct.
The government is not inclined to accept the call for a 'protest shutdown' of schools, he indicated.
What began as a 'road blockade protest' by over 3,000 people on Sunday resulted in stone-throwing, violence and vandalism in and around the school premises.
Several vehicles were torched and portions of some rooms in the school were affected due to the fire and other facilities in the institution were ransacked.
The agitators, pushing down barricades put up by the police, stormed the premises of an 'international' school at nearby Chinnasalem and set buses parked on the institution's premises afire.
Some of them set ablaze a police bus as well and to vent their anger, agitators damaged vehicles, turned them on their sides and used a tractor-trailer to damage and push aside buses.
Several protesters managed to reach the top of an arch-like structure at the school entrance and vandalised the school nameboard and held high banners seeking justice for the dead girl.
A group of agitators had a free run and indulged in vandalism on the school premises.
Some of them took away things like furniture and almirah from the school, damaged them and set them on fire on the road.
While agitators flung stones at policemen and women, several uniformed personnel picked up such stones and threw them back at the mobs.
The violence led to traffic disruptions on the arterial Chennai-Salem highway and vehicular traffic resumed by evening.
The protesters include volunteers of a youth outfit and young men gathered in huge numbers following messages in social media requesting young people and others to show solidarity for justice and turn up for Sunday's protest.
At least, 5,000 people took part in the protest, according to rough estimates. Outnumbered, the best efforts of police to disperse the protesters proved futile.
A 17-year-old girl, studying Class 12 in a private residential school in Chinnasalem's Kaniyamoor area, about 15 km from Kallakurichi, was found dead on July 13 on the hostel premises.
The girl, an inmate of a room on the third floor of the hostel was suspected to have ended her life by jumping to the ground from the top floor.
Reportedly, a postmortem report indicated that she had sustained injuries before her death.
Police registered a case and initiated probe.
Her parents, relatives and people belonging to her village Periyanasalur, off Veppur in Cuddalore district, have been staging non-stop protest raising suspicions in connection with the teenager's death and seeking justice.
The protests were being held in both Kallakurichi and Cuddalore districts.
Blaming the school authorities and seeking action against them they held a protest here on July 16 for the fourth successive day.
Their demands that have the support of a political outfit and the youth wing of a Left party include probe by an independent investigating agency and arrest of those responsible for the girl's death.
