2 cars set on fire in PUSU president’s house

A Mitsubishi Pajero and a Maruti Esteem car were burnt in the wee hours of Monday.

Uday’s father Bhupinder Singh said the incident took place around 4 am. He said after waking up by the sound of footsteps outside,he peeped through the window and “saw Ajaypal Singh,Gaggi Bajwa and Barinder Dhillon,along with two other youths,scaling the wall of the house”.

Subsequently,he alleged,Barinder and Ajaypal broke the rear windowpane of the Pajero,poured something inside and set it on fire. “The other two boys lighted the other car along with Gaggi Bajwa,” Bhupinder alleged.

Ajaypal,Gaggi and Barinder are supporters of the Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU).

“We kept silent. I called the police,which took at least 15 minutes to reach. Similarly,the fire brigade reached our house after over 30 minutes,” Bhupinder said. “In the meantime,we managed to bring the fire under control,which was doused by the fire brigade later.”

The interior of the Pajero car was completely gutted in the fire along with its spare and rear tyres,while the engine area and the rear portion of the Esteem car were damaged.

After the incident,a Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) team visited the spot. DSP Jagbir Singh said the police were investigating into the incident. No case was registered till the filing of this report.

Bhupinder,meanwhile,blamed the police for its “lackadaisical attitude,as they have been attacked twice in a week”. He alleged the police were “shielding the accused” in the earlier case and “forcing them to reach a compromise” with them.

On Thursday,five to six gunshots were fired at the house. The police had arrested SOPU supporters Vikramjit Singh alias Vicky and Arshdeep alias Robin Brar in the case.

The court,meanwhile,extended the police remand of the accused by one day. The police have also moved an application for narcoanalysis and brain-mapping test of the accused.

Bhupinder said he would take up the matter with senior police officers,as both the crime branch and the area police station officials were allegedly “hand-in-glove with the accused”.