College student held for carrying knife

CHENNAI: The ‘route rivalry’ existing in an autonomous college in the city took another dubious turn when a student affiliated to one faction was caught while trying to smuggle a knife into the campus on Wednesday.A police team posted outside the Presidency College on Kamarajar Salai stopped a student as he was making his way into the campus in the morning. “There was something protruding from his bag that caused suspicion,” assistant commissioner of police (Triplicane) S Senthil Kumaran told Express. “A search of the bag yielded a foot-and-half-long knife,” he said.When grilled by the police, the youth identified himself as V Vijayasekhar (20), a second-year BA History student of the college. Investigation revealed that he was a resident of Madras Port Trust Quarters and belonged to MTC route 6D faction — arch-rivals of the 27H group. In the students’ union elections held in August, the ‘6D’ group had been severely trounced by the ‘27H’ alliance. In the first week of October, classes were suspended following a clash between the two factions.Vijayasekhar claimed that the bag and the weapon belonging to another student Sarath Kumar, who belonged to 6D faction. Police found his claims to be true and summoned his relatives. In their presence, the student was issued a stern warning against indulging in such practices and let off, Kumaran said.Sources said the discovery of a weapon showed that the ‘bus route’ rivalry among students was assuming serious proportions. Students were found roaming with weapons on campuses of other government colleges too where student body elections were conducted on similar lines.