Students up in arms over hostellers death

CHENNAI: Tension prevailed in Kundrathur, when hundreds of students of an engineering college blocked traffic protesting against the death of their college-mate, who was electrocuted in her hostel room on Wednesday.Sources said Pavithra (18), a native of Tiruvannamalai, was pursuing her first year in computer science at the  college. On Wednesday morning, she went to the bathroom and opened the tap, when she suffered a serious electric shock.The students claimed that Pavithra was taken by the college authorities to a local private hospital in an autorickshaw and not an ambulance. They claimed that the hostel lacked basic amenities, leading to a student’s death. Senior police officials arrived on the scene and pacified the students. Following this, the students called off the road blockade but continued to hold sit-in protest inside their campus.