Fashion show inside, student groups of Panjab University clash outside

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The incident happened around 8 pm while a fashion event was going on at the Law Auditorium, where Finance and Planning Minister of Punjab Parminder Singh Dhindsa was presiding over as the chief guest.

According to Chandigarh president of SOI Vicky Midhukhera, leaders of SOI and PUSU got involved in an argument inside the auditorium, which later took an ugly turn. “There were these PUSU leaders who are now outsiders. They were hooting indecently during the fashion show. Members of SOI tried to request them not to do so, and in return, they asked us to meet them outside to settle the matter. Once we reached outside, there were about four to five PUSU leaders who started firing, and also broke the windowpanes of our cars with rods,” Middhukhera told Chandigarh Newsline. The damaged cars were Scorpio, Swift Dzire and Innova, belonging to the SOI leaders. Later, the police took the vehicles in their custody.

However, the PUSU members alleged that the fight was initiated by the members of SOI. “Members of PUSU were trying to attend the function, but the SOI leaders created a scene and did not let them go inside. One of the leaders of SOI who was formerly with PUSU, Gurpal Mann, then called Resham Godhara on his phone, and asked us to meet them near the parking of the police administration department. But once we reached there, no talks were held but several cars of SOI leaders came, and they fired at Resham,” said Vicky Sandhu, a member of PUSU.

After the incident, the two injured SOI members — Manpreet Aulakh and Jashanpreet — were rushed to Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16; Resham Godhara was rushed to PGIMER. A forensic team and UT SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill reached the university and took stock of the situation. Dean Students Welfare of PU Navdeep Goyal and chief security officer Jatinder Grover too reached the spot.

“We are looking into the situation and asserting how outsiders came inside the campus. From what it looks like, some outsiders targeted the students. However, the matter is being looked into,” said Goyal, who later reached GMSH-16.

DSP (Central Zone) Satish Kumar told Chandigarh Newsline that eight rounds were allegedly fired at the spot. “We have launched an investigation and so far two people have been detained and they are being questioned,” he said.

A senior official of GMSH-16 said that two people were admitted to the hospital on Friday evening. “One of them suffered bullet injuries while another was also injured,” said the official. “Both of them are stable now.”

At PGI, doctors said the patient had suffered jaw injuries. “He was admitted to the hospital with injuries on his jaw and is being treated. However, his condition is currently stable,” said a senior doctor from Advance Trauma Centre, PGI.

An eyewitness, who resides in one of the PU boys’ hostels, said, “I was near the hostel, when I saw about four cars pulling into the parking near the Department of Police Administration. Members of SOI got out of the cars, and there was a verbal fight that soon took a nasty turn. The student leaders hit each other with rods and shot at each other, and chased each other up to the university library.”

At the time of filing this report, however, Inspector Narinder Patial, SHO of Sector 11, told Chandigarh Newsline that no case had been registered so far. “We are yet to receive a complaint. We will arrest the accused once the case is registered,” Patial said.

The university students questioned the university authorities over the entry of outsiders and absence of CCTV cameras inside the university parking. “The students are terrified that such an incident can take place publicly inside the campus. We are going to meet the Vice-Chancellor tomorrow and demand a high-level inquiry into the issue,” said Prabhpreet, a student of PU.