Engineering student’s killing: Accused nabbed, Punjabi university forms security review panel
A day after the killing of Navjot Singh, a 20-year-old engineering student at the University College of Engineering, in a fight between two groups outside the department in the campus, the Patiala Police nabbed one accused on Tuesday.
A day after the killing of Navjot Singh, a 20-year-old engineering student at the University College of Engineering, in a fight between two groups outside the department in the campus, the Patiala Police nabbed one accused on Tuesday.
Urban Estate police station in-charge Amritvir Singh, said, “The FIR was registered against six accused in which three were unidentified while three others were known by name. We have arrested one accused who is among the three unidentified accused.” He added, “The cremation was done after the post-mortem.” About the reason of the fight, he said, “They exchanged verbal stabs in the past also and that is probably the reason of the fight.”
Family of the victim has demanded arrest of all the accused immediately. The SHO added, “It will be resolved as soon as possible.”
Student bodies hold protest in university
The united front of political outfits of students held a protest march from the university college of engineering to vice chancellor’s office in Punjabi University, Patiala on Tuesday. They demanded an “answer to the lapses in the security in the campus.”
Gurdas Singh, a student leader from Punjab Students’ Union in the university, said, “We marched from the university college of engineering where the incident happened on Monday to the vice chancellor’s office in the campus. The authorities should plug loopholes in the security arrangements at the university.” Some students claimed that there is a misuse of entry passes for vehicles. One of their demands was to make the university ‘a vehicle-free-zone’. Student bodies claimed that they had kept the office of the vice chancellor closed for over two hours. Professor Arvind, the vice chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, reportedly, assured the students that efforts are being undertaken to improve security in the campus.
Panel set-up to recommend on security in university
According to a letter released by the Punjabi University, Patiala, a security review panel has been formulated under the chairmanship of Professor Satnam Singh Sandhu, the head of the department of open and distance learning. Other faculty that will be a part of this panel include Dr Umrao Singh, Dr Mini Singh, Dr Mamta Sharma and Dr Jasdeep Singh Toor. The letter stated, “This committee will work as a security committee and the department of security will be looked after by the committee.”
When contacted, the security officer, Gurtej Singh,said, “I have not received any official communication about the panel but I have heard about it.”
Navjot Kaur, the registrar of the university, said, “Safety and security of the students is our first concern. The committee will recommend the university on the security matters. The security officer will implement the recommendations of the committee.”
What the security officer of the varsity has to say?
About the killing of Navjot Singh in the university, Gurtej Singh, the security officer of the department of transport and security in Punjabi University, Patiala, said, “It was a very unfortunate incident that disturbed and saddened every one of us deeply in the university. It is a matter of police investigation. However, the police have registered FIR against six accused.” He added, “The entire incident has been captured in the CCTV footage.”
On misuse of vehicle passes, Singh added, “There is a lot of activity related to education and administration in the university. We try to keep a check on it.” About the number of security guards in the university, the security officer said, “There are about 215 security guards. Out of these, 80-85 are deployed in the hostels.” When asked about the security outside the departments, he added, “The security guards look after the departments after these are locked, usually after 5:00 PM till morning of next day every day.”