Clash in Punjab college over ‘twirling moustaches’: Two injured as youths open fire in Khanna college

One accused, identified as Ajay Singh of Rattanheri village of Khanna, was arrested. Police said he is a second-year student at the college, while his three accomplices are absconding.

The three others identified as Jatin Monga alias Trendy of Daresi, Ludhiana; Krishna Sahni alias Laddoo of Sector 32, Chandigarh road, Ludhiana; and Lovepreet Singh of Saloudi village, Khanna; were still absconding. Police said three other accused were not college students but “outsiders” who used to visit the college often to meet Ajay who was their friend.

“Except Ajay, none of the others were college students. They were outsiders who were carrying illegal weapons. It was not a gang war but an argument over twirling moustaches which escalated. Monga and Sahni are history-sheeters and previous cases including attempt to murder are registered against them in Ludhiana. Ajay has been arrested. Raids are on to arrest others,” Khanna SSP Amneet Kondal said.

In the first FIR registered at Khanna Sadar police station, complainant Manvir Singh of Doraha, a first-year student at the college, told police that and his friend Harvinder Singh were relaxing after playing volleyball when Ajay and Monga turned up. Manvir said Ajay confronted Harvinder saying that he was “staring at him in anger while twirling his moustaches”, but Harvinder denied and said it was nothing like that.

According to Manvir, soon the argument between Ajay and Harvinder escalated and Monga took out his pistol from his pocket and opened fire. Manvir further told police that soon another accused Sahni also reached there and he also opened fire with his weapon. Manvir said he sustained a bullet injury in his shoulder while another person identified as Husan Lal, the college peon, who was passing from nearby, also got injured. He claimed that another accused Lovepreet was sitting in the car when all this happened.

The FIR was registered under sections 109, 351 (2), 191 (3), 190 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and 25 of Arms Act in the firing incident. Khanna SSP Amneet Kondal said at least three shells were recovered from the spot and the injured were stable.

Nearly an hour later after the accused fled from the college, they allegedly robbed a petrol pump at gunpoint on Samrala road, said police. Another FIR was registered at Samrala police station on the statement of Lakhvir Singh, an employee at the fuel filling station who said that two vehicles including a Swift car and a motorbike had arrived.

He added that Lovepreet along with Moga, Ajay and Sahni were in the car and they asked him to fill fuel worth Rs 500. Another man whom Lovepreet was addressing as Bachi was on bike, said the complainant.

He added that after the fuel was filled, Sahni asked for a QR code scanner to make online payment and sent it to someone via phone. However, when the payment was not received for a few minutes, he asked him again.

Lakhvir said soon Monga came out of his car and flashed his pistol. “They then snatched my bag containing Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 in cash and asked me to keep quiet or else they would shoot me dead,” said Lakhvir in his statement. Later after they fled, we got an online payment of Rs 300 from one Akshat Sahni,” Lakhvir added.