In second murder in 6 months, former student shot dead in Allahabad Univ

india

Updated: Apr 15, 2019 19:32 IST

A former student of Allahabad University who was also a history-sheeter, was shot dead in a hostel of the university in the early hours of Monday, police said.

The deceased identified as Rohit Shukla was shot dead in the PCB hostel after a tiff with one Adarsh Tripathi who had contested the students’ union elections earlier. Earlier his month, Shukla had been named in a list of illegal inmates of the hostel.

Authorities deployed heavy police force to prevent any retaliatory violence. An FIR has been lodged against Adarsh and some others and a hunt has been launched for the accused, police said.

“The motive for the murder of Rohit Shukla could not be ascertained immediately. An FIR had been lodged against Adarsh Tripathi, Abhishek Yadav, Navneet Yadav and other unidentified persons on the complaint of Rohit’s family,” said superintendent of police (city) Brajesh Kumar Srivastava.

Adarsh and Abhishek are boarders of PCB hostel.

“Primary investigations reveal that Rohit often used to visit the hostel. Teams have been formed to ensure the early arrest of the accused. Heavy force has been deployed near the university to avert any untoward incident,” Srivastava said.

A police officer familiar with the developments said Rohit and his associates reached PCB hostel at around 2 am to meet someone when he had a tiff with Adarsh and his aides over some issue.

Circle officer, Colonelganj, Shreesh Chandra said, “Preliminary reports suggest that Adarsh opened fire on Rohit with a country-made firearm near the lavatory after a heated argument and then fled the hostel with his friends. Rohit was rushed to SRN Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.”

A native of Bara Tehsil in trans-Yamuna area, Rohit was living with his family in Georgetown area. He was active in student union politics and was known among the students as Betu Shukla.

People familiar with the events said Sunday’s murder may be related to the killing of student leader Achyutanand alias Sumit Shukla who was gunned down at the same hostel in November 2018. Rohit was close to Achyutanand and was also a witness in the latter’s murder case.

“Rohit was close to Achyutanand and we are looking into the possibilities of a connection between both the murders,” the circle officer said.

Chandra said around half-a-dozen cases, including that of murder, were lodged against Rohit at Colonelganj police station.

“A warrant was also issued against Rohit in a loot case. Some of the Rohit’s associates claim that he was pursuing LLB from the Allahabad University but their claims are yet to be verified,” he said.

On April 12, proctor RS Dubey had sent a letter to senior police officials demanding action against illegal inmates and miscreants at the PCB Hostel. The list of miscreants included the name of Rohit Shukla.

This is the second incident of violence on a university campus in Uttar Pradesh this month.

On April 2, Gaurav Singh, a second-year student of MCA at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), was talking to his friends when unidentified men opened fire on him.