Chennai, Jan 24: Protesters and police locked horns in the city on Monday as law and order took a turn for the worst with images going viral of police personnel torching autorickshaws parked on the streets. Reacting to the photographs, Chennai city police commissioner S George refuted the charges, stating that the video "appears to be morphed". "It is ridiculous to blame the police. We have given the video footage to our cybercrime wing for analysis," he said.
Police personnel tried to control crowds gathered near Vivekanandar Illam as resilience turned to violence with stones being hurled and vehicles being vandalised.
Chennai city police, monitoring protests held on Kamarajar Salai off Marina beach, were forced to evacuate protesters. Police say senior officers conducted various rounds of talks with the agitators before they were forced to use "mild force" to remove them from the location.
One of the protesters, Loyola College professor Andrew Sesuraj though said there were instances of police excess. "Policemen went on attacking people and vandalised vehicles parked on the road. They also forced shopkeepers to down their shutters," Sesuraj said. "My motorbike was partially damaged after a team of policemen hit it. They also attacked an old man and couple of innocent women walking on the road on Seventh Street of Anna Salai in Sastri Nagar," he added.
On another stretch of the Marina, a platoon of police personnel tried to remove protesters, as they charged towards the sea, forming a human chain of resistance along the shoreline.
Protesters were heard shouting out that even though Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam had brought in a special ordinance to conduct jallikattu or the bull-taming sport, it did nothing for their demand that the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act be amended.
But efforts by the police to quell the mob, for most part seemed impeded by a lack of preparedness as well as coordination between senior officers.
Attempts by the police to diffuse the crowd with tear gas, for instance, failed as most of the rounds of ammunition fell to the ground due to a malfunction. In another incident at Nadu Kuppam, more than a dozen probationary sub-inspectors were injured as they were caught off-guard and without safety gear when a mob hurled petrol bombs at them.
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