Chandigarh, August 4: Congress’ student wing National Students Union of India (NSUI) announced its Panjab University (PU) panel on Friday, naming an accused in a 2016 carjacking case and an aide of gangster Sampat Nehra as its president.
Besides Pankaj Jakhar as president, Gurpreet Singh, Vijay Jit Hayar and Gurkirat Pannu were declared party president, campus president and chairman, respectively. Gurpreet and Vijay Jit were expelled from Student Organisation of India (SOI), the student wing of the Shiromani Akali Dal, previously.
Pankaj Jakhar, along with Nehra, was accused of robbing a car in Patiala in 2016. Nehra, who is accused in over a dozen cases of murder, extortion, carjacking and robbery in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Chandigarh, was first arrested along with aides, including Jakhar, in the carjacking case on January 21, 2016, and later released on bail.
A special task force of Haryana Police had nabbed Nehra again in June this year. He remains under their custody for probe into various cases.
Jakhar, back then was a student of bachelors of science at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College (SGGS), Sector 26, Chandigarh. A native of Bhiwani, Haryana, he is currently vying for a seat in any of a number of Panjab University courses.
During interrogation after the arrests in Patiala, it had come out that Nehra and his accomplices had hired a Toyota Innova taxi to travel from Patiala to Chandigarh. On the way, they had beaten up the taxi driver and driven away with the vehicle with the plan of striking an ATM in Jind, Haryana.
A cop at the Patiala Urban Estate police station said the carjacking case was under trial.
NSUI all-India secretary Nitish Gaur said, “I had no information about his appointment, and came to know about it through media only. But Pankaj had got bail in the case, and the charges haven’t been proven yet. Those who are jealous of his capabilities as a student leader are trying to create a controversy.”
On his part, Jakhar said, “It is all a political conspiracy against me. When I was in SGGS College, the opposition parties falsely implicated me in the case. The matter is under trial, and I have not been proven guilty yet. I was never involved in any crime.”
Meanwhile, SOI spokesperson Vicky Middukhera said, “Vijay Jit Hayar and Gurpreet Pannu were both ousted from SOI. We can see what kind of people NSUI is choosing as their panel members.”
This is not the first time that an accused in a police case has been announced president or an office-bearer of a party on the campus. In June, Students Organisation of India (SOI) announced their presidential candidate, for the Panjab University student elections,who was booked in a case of assault in March 2017.
In the 2017 student elections, Student Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) supporters could be seen adorning images of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. Nehra had come in contact with Bishnoi while lodged in jail in Patiala in 2016.
Meanwhile, another student union on the campus — Gandhi Group Students Union (GGSU) is named after gangster Rupinder Gandhi.
Source Tribune India
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