Two students from Jharkhand and one from Bihar studying at Annamalai Engineering College were found dead during a student agitation inside the campus on Monday.

“The students, while being chased by the police, jumped into the canal and got drowned,” Principal Home Secretary Aamir Subhani said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on Tuesday, called Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi asking for protection for students from Bihar studying in deemed universities in that state and said that ‘anti-Bihari’ sentiments should be nipped in the bud.

Both, Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren and Kumar have announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 1.5 lakh each to the families of students.

Earlier, according to police sources, the students went on a rampage, damaging five cars after vice-chancellor M Ramanathan reportedly refused to discuss the alleged ‘negligence’ of the university medical college hospital doctors in attending to a student injured in a road accident on February 28.

The student was admitted to the university hospital that day, but died later while being shifted to the Jawaharlal Institute of Post-graduate Medical Education and Research hospital in Puducherry.

Following a complaint by the vice-chancellor, police rushed to the university and first requested the students to disperse. When the students refused to budge, the police chased them away. The vice-chancellor has ordered an indefinite closure of the college.