Jalandhar(Parteek Singh): The students of Lovely Professional University (LPU) went on the rampage Sunday night after the police arrested a hosteller from Jalandhar Cantonment railway station in a case of mobile theft. A police team which reached the campus near Phagwara to recover a mobile phone from the hosteller’s room faced sharp protest from students.
The protesting students made damage to the property on the campus and around midnight staged a dharna on National Highway-1 at the front gate of the university. Heavy police force was deployed at all gates of the campus, restricting any entry after the last night clash between students and cops. DIG Jaskaran Singh reached the LPU and was camping there. Traffic remained suspended for several hours as students have blocked the highway and long queues of vehicles were seen on the road.
Things turned ugly as a flock of the students, who had blocked NH 1 outside the campus, were reportedly hit by a speeding car coming from the wrong side.The angry students first set the car on a blaze and then moved towards Chaheru police post situated in front of the campus and set a police vehicle on fire. Police fired five shots in the air to remove mob to protect the driver from protesters. Later police registered a case of attempt to murder against the driver and arrested him. The whole incident arose after An LPU student of Tamil Nadu had registered a complaint at Jalandhar Bus Stand police post that an unidentified person had stolen his mobile phone and receiver is demanding Rs 35,000 to return it. Later a police team from Jalandhar cantonment rounded up a Bsc second-year student, Subhanshu Dubey, 22, from Bihar, and searched his hostel room in D-block to recover stolen mobile phone.
Phagwara superintendent of police, Parminder Singh Bhandal said the situation was is under control now and pretty much normal. “We have deployed sufficient police force at the campus. Five students have been injured and students who had got injured were rushed to a private hospital on Sunday and are doing fine,” he said.