The News Minute | February 4, 2015 | 8.20 PM ISTContinuing the protest against shifting of Chennai's law college to Thiruvallur, students of the college protested on Wednesday in George Town which later led to police lathi charge and arrests.The college building, constructed in 1891, had developed a crack because of the metro rail work happening nearby. The college authorities said that the classes will need to be shifted to another place so that the college building could be renovated.However, students said that it was a plan by the authorities to shift the college once and for all. It is based on this fear that the students had first protested on Monday.The main gate of Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College remained closed since Wednesday morning. Students who were interested in attending classes were let in through another gate.But by afternoon a group of the students who were protesting in George Town entered the classrooms and asked all students to join them to prevent the shifting of venue of the college to the nearby district.Traffic in Parrys, a main area of Chennai, was totally brought to a standstill by afternoon. There were enough police deployed to prevent any untoward incident from happening.After persuasion by the police, the students let the vehicles ply."Police said that an ambulance was blocked in the jam and we let the vehicles go so that the ambulance could go. As the vehicles went the police brought in their bus. We realized that it was for this that they made the ambulance story," a student said.As the students blocked the road again seeing the police bus, the officials said that they were arresting the students. A government passenger bus was emptied and the students were asked to get into that.As the students lined up raising slogans to get into the bus, a policeman who was inside the bus pulled a student by his shirt's collar into the bus. The student reacted by hitting the policeman and the officer ordered lathicharge.The police showed no mercy and hit the students severely. Around ten students were forced into the bus and others ran from the spot after police lathicharge. Few students who were injured severely have been admitted in government hospital. Within moments the traffic which was blocked since afternoon was diffused.Students have said that they would intensify their protests. Few have also said that students from other government law colleges in the state would be asked to protest against the police lathicharge."The government said that Anna Arch could not be demolished for metro work, and it asked the authorities to move the arch as such to another place. When that seemed impossible the plan of the metro route was altered. Why can't the government take a similar stand here? The law college building is really old and has a heritage value attached to it. Just because politics isn't directly involved in this, unlike the Anna Arch, the government isn't interested," says another student.TweetFollow @thenewsminute