IIT Kamand firing: Contractor held for attempted murder

The police made the first arrest in the IIT Kamand firing incident on Tuesday, taking into custody a civil contractor, Rajiv Kumar, at the Himachal Pradesh high court complex in Shimla immediately after his bail application was rejected.

The police made the first arrest in the IIT Kamand firing incident on Tuesday, taking into custody a civil contractor, Rajiv Kumar, at the Himachal Pradesh high court complex in Shimla immediately after his bail application was rejected.

The court had earlier granted him interim bail that expired on Monday. Kumar had reportedly hired some men from Punjab as security guards who allegedly opened fire on labourers on the Mandi north campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kamand, on June 20. A mob later attacked the guards in retaliation, leaving four of them dead and nine others injured.

Kumar was arrested on charges of attempted murder. Mandi superintendent of police (SP) Prem Thakur said he would be produced in court on Wednesday and the police would seek extension of his custody for further investigation.

Thakur said more arrests under similar charges might be made after recording statements of the injured security guards who were admitted to PGIMER, Chandigarh, and have been reported missing since June 25