4 students hurt, vehicles damaged in LPU protest

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Phagwara, November 6

Four Lovely Professional University (LPU) students were injured after being run over by a car during a protest outside the campus in the wee hours of today. The protest was triggered by the detention of a hosteller by the police in connection with an alleged case of extortion and mobile phone theft.

The students first set the car on fire and then proceeded towards Chaheru police post situated outside the campus and damaged a windowpane of a police vehicle parked there.

The students gheraoed the car driver, Shehanshah Singh, and thrashed him. The police, who came to his rescue, had to fire five shots in the air to disperse the mob. Shehanshah was arrested and booked on the charge of attempt to murder.

An LPU student from Tamil Nadu had reportedly lodged a complaint with the Jalandhar City police that an unidentified person had stolen his iPhone and demanded Rs 35,000 to return it.

ADCP (Jalandhar-2) D Sudarvizhi said, “The complaint was lodged yesterday morning. We kept tracing the caller throughout the day.”

The police tracked down the caller to Jalandhar Cantonment railway station. He turned out to be an LPU student. When he was brought to the hostel to recover the phone, he raised the alarm. Other students came to his rescue in large numbers.

Students today said they saw a hosteller being forcibly bundled in a police vehicle around 11 pm yesterday. “We thought that this could happen with anyone. We were opposing the police action over a trivial matter. The university authorities, including the warden, did not come to his rescue. So, we all came out raising slogans, seeking justice for him and sat on a dharna,” one of the students said, adding the incident of a car running over students instigated them.

Students raised slogans, damaged university property and blocked NH-1 outside the campus.

The Kapurthala police blamed their Jalandhar City counterparts for acting in a hurry, not keeping them in the loop and triggering a protest over a trivial matter of mobile theft.

Phagwara Superintendent of Police (SP) Parminder Singh Bhandal said the situation was under control. “The police are deployed on the campus. The injured students were admitted to a private hospital yesterday. All are fine.”

The injured students are Amar and Muzamil from Kolkata, Ram Kinkar from Odisha and Dina Nath. Amar has a fractured left arm and a shoulder; he has undergone surgery. Amar and Muzamil have injuries on the face, hands and feet, while Dina Nath has been discharged.

“The university is functioning normally and there is peace on the campus,” said LPU Director Aman Mittal.

The accused student and the one who lodged the complaint reportedly settled their dispute last night and even attended the classes today.

IG Arpit Shukla said, “Our teams will continue to examine the case and look for lapses.”