Bangalore: Twelve policemen were injured in stone-pelting and around 50 agitators detained after a protest by students against the revised fee structure for professional courses in Karnataka erupted in violence on July 10, resulting in a police lathicharge to control the situation.

Police said a section of the students who had gathered outside the Common Entrance Test (CET) cell at Malleshwaram turned hostile after the Higher Education Minister G Parameshwar did not meet them personally, as demanded by the students.

Police said they expressed their readiness to take a small delegation of students to the Minister but the agitators insisted that Parameshwar, who was in the legislative Assembly, talk to them personally.

Joint Commissioner of Police C Chandrashekar said that 12 policemen, including some sub-inspectors, were injured in stone-pelting by hundreds of students, who attacked the building as well as a Bank housed in the premises.

Windowpanes of the building were broken in the stone pelting by the agitators, who were estimated by the police to be around 800. Police resorted to lathicharge to control the situation.

The students, who gathered under the banner of Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishath (ABVP) were agitating over the fee structure in engineering, medical and dental colleges which, they maintained, were extremely high and demanded that the fee be slashed.

PTI