Students demand safety after medical intern is left injured in clash

Students demand safety after medical intern is left injured in clash 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 23.03.2025

Chennai : Two days after a medical intern at the ESIC Medical College and Hospital in KK Nagar was injured in a clash with the housekeeping and security staff, students —undergraduates and postgraduates — went on a protest on Saturday, demanding safety on campus. The protest, which began at 8am, lasted more than four hours. Students ended it after the management issued a four-page circular promising further inquiry into the incident and enhanced security for students. On Friday, the MGR Nagar police registered a case and arrested housekeeping staff member A P Balajeevagan, who was produced before a magistrate court and remanded in judicial custody. Hospital sources said the security and housekeeping staff stopped a food delivery agent from entering the campus at 11:30pm on Thursday as it was beyond “permitted hours”.

Following this, the intern who had ordered the food, Alfred, argued with Balajeevagan and five other security staff as one of the students recorded them. In the video sent to media, Alfred is seen asking who ordered them to prevent students from ordering food late at night. The arguments turned into a fistfight, and Balajeevagan was seen beating Alfred. Alfred was not available for comment. “Alfred has blunt injuries on his shoulder. He is being treated at the hospital,” hospital dean Dr Kalidas Chavan said. “Preliminary enquiries revealed the intern was beaten. We terminated the housekeeping and security staff. The agencies that employed them gave us a copy of the termination letters. We also filed a police complaint and initiated an internal enquiry into the incident. 

A three-member committee headed by the medical superintendent will inquire into the incident,” he said. The college had asked the security to not permit outsiders, including food delivery agents, on campus after 10:30pm for security reasons, he said. Senior professors said they counselled students and promised legal action against those who hurt Alfred. Meanwhile, students said the management gave them a copy of the letters from two agencies — Urekha Security Agency Private Limited, which terminated H Anwer Basha, R Durai Raj, S Uthirapathy, N Ramamoorthy, and S Durai from services, and from Alert Security Services, which relieved Balajeevagan due to “administrative reasons.”