Namakkal, Tamil Nadu:
The seven Keralite engineering students of a private college in Namakkal, arrested on the charge of murdering one of their juniors and severely injuring another in a suspected case of ragging, were on Saturday remanded to judicial custody for 15 days by a court.
The students, charged with murder, rioting and attempt to murder, were produced before Rasipuram Judicial Magistrate A Munuswamy who remanded them to judicial custody.
Two of them were lodged in the Central Prison in Salem while the others were sent to the Sub-jail at Paramathy.
The third year students of Gnanamani Engineering College had on Friday asked their juniors to fetch them drinking water from a tank, after the juniors refused to comply, they were threatened with dire consequences.
After college hours, the juniors left for home on a motorbike and as they neared a junction, they were intercepted by the seven students in a car and attacked with iron rods. One of the juniors died on the spot and the other suffered head injuries, police said.
The accused sped away in the car, but locals alerted the police, who nabbed them at nearby Omalur.