Chennai encounter: Gang chief 'was not SRM student'
Vinod Kumar, who was killed in an encounter along with four accomplices in the wee hours of Thursday, remained an enigma after the SRM University denied media reports which claimed he was a first-year engineering dropout from the institution.
“The SRM student is M. Vinod Kumar whereas the killed bandit was S. Vinod Kumar and besides, our student is very much attending classes”, said Prof. M. Ponnavaiko, SRM vice-chancellor.
“It is unfair that some sections of the media are dragging our name in an attempt to sully our reputation”, a visibly upset VC said.
It appeared that a TV news channel put out the report linking the gang leader to SRM and the others picked up the wrong news. When a question in this regard was posed to Chennai police commissioner J. K. Tripathy, he quipped: “We (police) did not say the boy was an alumnus of SRM. If some media said that, you must go and ask them”.
However, a posse of policemen descended on the SRM campus at Kattankulathur early Thursday morning to check out if the suspect had studied there as reported in the media.
“The police found that their Vinod Kumar was different from our student, who is attending classes”, Prof Ponnavaiko told DC.
SRM students appeared upset that their institution was dragged into this gory episode.
“We wish that the media people had taken some effort to verify the report before indulging in this image-sullying”, said a woman student at the campus.
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