Student suspected of murder in Shiv Nadar university accused of portraying classmate’s shooting as dog bite

The university, however, refuted this claim and said the whole situation was explained clearly to the police

After a woman student of Shiv Nadar University in Greater Noida was shot dead on the campus allegedly by her male classmate on Thursday, police on Friday said the first complaint they received from the varsity suggested that the student was “bitten by a stray dog on the campus”.

The outside area of the dinning hall of the university where the incident took place. (HT Photo)

After killing the third-year student, a 21-year-old from Kanpur, on Thursday afternoon, her male classmate ran back to the hostel and shot himself dead.

“The university reported the shooting as a stray dog bite incident at the local police post. By that time, they had already rushed the girl in the university ambulance to Yatharth Hospital in Greater Noida,” said Sujeet Upadhyay, station officer (SO), Dadri police station.

It was only when the hospital authorities informed the police did they learn that the student had been shot.

SO Upadhyay said, “I immediately sent an inspector to clarify the facts from the hospital. We learnt that it was the same woman regarding whom we had received a dog bite complaint from the university,” he said.

The university, however, refuted this claim and said the whole situation was explained clearly to the police.

“The victim was spotted unconscious by a few other students. None of them realised that the victim had been shot. Within a few minutes, a doctor on site identified gunshot wounds as the cause of injury. The entire scenario was narrated to the police clearly. At no point did the university authorities try to mislead or misinform police about the cause of death,” said a spokesperson of the varsity.

Police said that hours after the first incident, university officials called a second time, to alert them that a male student had shot himself at the hostel, Upadhyay said. “A police team rushed to the spot and found the student dead of self-inflicted gunshot wound at the hostel. A countrymade pistol with live cartridges was recovered from next to the body and extra cartridges were found in his bag. The body was then sent for an autopsy,” said the officer. Investigators said the student shot himself in his friend’s room. “The student lived on the third floor of the hostel while his body was found in a room on the first floor,” Upadhyay said. He added that gunshot wounds on campus are unheard of in the area. “The university is generally known for strict security arrangements on campus,” he said.

About the girl’s death, Dr Sunil Balyan, medical superintendent, Yatharth Hospitals, said, “The student was brought to the hospital in the Shiv Nadar University ambulance, accompanied by their nursing staff. Our teams checked the woman and declared her dead on arrival. We informed the police and handed over the body for a postmortem examination.”

Meanwhile, the woman’s father Raj Kumar Chaurasia alleged that he, too, was misinformed by the university. “I got a call from the varsity around 3pm stating that my daughter was ‘involved in an accident’ and that we should come to Greater Noida immediately. My brother and I drove from Kanpur and reached Greater Noida around 10pm and found our daughter was no more,” said the man, who is an advocate from Kanpur.

He said he was informed by the police that his daughter was shot by another student.

“We trusted this university with the well-being of our children. How can a person enter the campus with a firearm undetected?” he said. The woman’s uncle said they will file a formal complaint against the college for negligence.

On the allegations of compromised security on campus, a Shiv Nadar University spokesperson said, “The campus has 24x7 CCTV coverage and security staff and they are checked regularly.”

HT is not revealing the name of the two dead students because some of the circumstances leading to the crime are yet to be ascertained.