Punjab: SGPC-run varsity V-C shot at,critically wounded

As 75-year-old Ahluwalia stepped out of his office at around 1530 hrs in Fatehgarh Sahab,a man fired shots at him and fled,police said.

The attacker was wearing a blue turban and had flowing beard,they said.

Blood was found splattered at the scene as top police and district officials arrived at the university run by the SGPC.

The varsity was cordoned off by the police and security tightened in the area. A case under various sections of the IPC was registered against the assailant.

Ahluwalia was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of PGIMER. He was unconscious when he was brought there.

“His condition is critical. Luckily,the bullets have not entered his brain. A bullet has pierced through his jaw,” a senior doctor at PGIMER,said.

In 1999,Ahluwalia,a former IAS officer,was appointed Vice Chancellor of the Punjabi University,Patiala when Parkash Singh Badal was the Chief Minister.

In 2002,Ahluwalia had figured in a controversy and was sacked by the then Amarinder Singh government in the face of charges of misbehaviour with a girl student.

An attempt to murder case was also registered against Ahluwalia nine years ago.

In January last year,a Patiala Court had dismissed the sexual harassment case against him.

Some radical outfits also opposed the appointment of Ahluwalia as Fatehgarh Sahib varsity VC.