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Assailants asked for DAV College passout Ashu Nain before killing two students in Chandigarh
The assailants who shot dead two college students associated with the Hindustan Student Association at their rented house in Sector 15, Chandigarh, on Wednesday
The assailants who shot dead two college students associated with the Hindustan Student Association at their rented house in Sector 15, Chandigarh, on Wednesday night asked for the whereabouts of a DAV College, Sector 10, passout Ashu Nain before opening fire.
Police sources said Nain was present at the house at 8pm but had left by the time the assailants came at 10.15pm.
According to the FIR registered on the complaint of Mohit, 20, an eyewitness and a friend of victims Ajay Sharma and Vineet Singh, four armed men barged into their second floor house in the heart of the city around 10.15pm and enquired about Nain. When the two expressed ignorance about his whereabouts, the assailants opened fire and fled.
“I rushed my roommates to PGI, where they died during treatment,” said Mohit, who escaped unhurt.
Both victims are from Jind and in their early 20s. Mohit is from Gianpura village in Barwala tehsil of Hisar district.
He said the three had taken the house on rent only two days before the incident. He said he was preparing to re-appear for his B.Sc exam. Ajay Sharma was a final year student at SD College, Sector 32, Chandigarh, and Vineet, a BSc final year student at Post-Graduate College in Sector 11, Chandigarh.
Their family members arrived from Jind but refused to speak to the media.
11 GUNSHOTS FIRED
The forensic team of Chandigarh Police said that 11 shots were fired. Nine shells and two live cartridges were recovered from the spot.
The police are investigating if the attackers had a personal enmity with DAV College passout Ashu Nain or if it is a case of student union rivalry.
They are also probing if there is a connection with the killing of a student union leader and DAV College passout, Vishal Chhillar, 24, in March 2019.
“We are conducting raids and the culprits will be arrested soon,” a Chandigarh Police official said.
A case was registered under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC besides the Arms Act.
VIOLENT PAST
Five youngsters were arrested for Vishal Chhillar’s murder in March at a Chandigarh Housing Board flat in Sector 49. Swords and rods used by the assailants were recovered. Police said student politics and a dispute led to the attack.
Vishal had come from Rewari to take short service commission exam for the post of constable. House owner Pankaj, Meghal Jaswal and Ashish Nehra, all from INLD’s student wing Indian National Student Organisation (INSO), were injured in the attack. Ashish was the college student council president, while Jaswal was the joint secretary.
They had a rivalry with Sudeep Pahal and his group. All those arrested belong to Hisar and are either studying in or have graduated from DAV College. They were identified as a BA third-year students Rahul Manda, 21; Sumit Kumar, 23; Sushil Kumar, 20; and alumni Ramdeep Sheokand, 21, and Amandeep Nehra, 21.
Sudeep and Vishal were hostile to each other since the time both were in INSO. Sudeep was a senior leader, while Vishal was its president in 2016. In 2017, they had a brawl when Sudeep camp nominated Rajat Badran for the post of INSO party president, while the Vishal camp backed someone else. Since then, the two groups often had altercations.
