Student shot at in G B Pant Agriculture and Technology University

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand government on Tuesday beefed up security in G B Pant Agriculture and Technology University campus in Udham Singh Nagar district after a PhD student was shot near the university canteen allegedly by two motor-cycle borne armed youths.

Erayya (25) is pursing Ph D course in Plant Pathology and was shot at on Monday. His condition is said to be serious.

Dean (Agricutlure), J Kumar, said Erayya is from Karnataka and has been in the Ph D course under him for the last couple of years. Kumar said Erayya was living in University's P G hostel. He said as Erayya was a quiet and serious student and he cannot understand why he was targeted by outsiders. "As there are no restrictions on outsiders' entry into the campus especially in the canteen, all sorts of people including anti-social elements frequent it," Kumar said.

Udham Singh Nagar SSP Ridhim Aggarwal said the shooting occurred around 9.30 pm when students were sitting in the canteen after having dinner. Aggarwal said Erayya had an argument with some students over an issue related to university and minutes later two motor-cycle borne youths drove into the canteen, shooting him twice. She said Erayya was immediately rushed to the university dispensary.

She said Erayya was then shifted to a private hospital in Haldwani as his condition deteriorated. Senior doctors said he was under close observation in the ICU. They described his condition as out of danger.

SSP Aggarwal said police have booked both the assailants including one identified as Mukul Tapoli on an FIR in Pant Nagar police station. She said police teams have been constituted to conducted raids at different places to track down the accused.

"We have not yet been able to arrest them so far but we hope to make headway in a day or two," she said.

A senior police officer in Udham Singh Nagar said as the news of attack on victim spread, a number of hostellers and other university students rushed to the vice-chancellor's office and turned violent.

Situation began to take a serious turn as angry students allegedly vandalized the VC's office apart from causing extensive damage to the university property to protest against the incident.

They demanded immediate arrest of culprits responsible for crime and barring an entry into university campus by outsiders. A senior police officer said they deployed forces in strengthen and intensified patrolling in the campus to bring the situation under control.

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