Chandigarh: Panjab University student succumbs to stab wounds after concert

Aditya Thakur, 22, one of the four students stabbed at a concert organised at Panjab University’s South Campus on Friday night, succumbed to his injuries at Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) on Saturday.

Police said Thakur, a second-year student of computer science engineering at the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), was stabbed in the thigh during Haryanvi singer Masoom Sharma’s concert.

Eyewitnesses said the four students were attacked by outsiders who had scaled the campus wall from the adjoining Sector 25 slum.

Thakur was referred to PGIMER on Friday night itself and breathed his last on Saturday morning. Police registered a murder case against unidentified attackers at the Sector 11 police station. The process to identify and arrest the accused is on.

Dean, Students Welfare, (DSW) Amit Chauhan was at PGIMER, awaiting the arrival of Thakur’s parents from Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh. The victim’s father, Praveen Thakur, is from Hoshiarpur in Punjab and works in a factory at Nalagarh.

“We (PU) will proceed according to the police report,” Chauhan said.

The other three injured students, including one from Chandigarh University, Gharuan, are undergoing treatment for stab injuries at Government Multi Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, Chandigarh. They are stated to be out of danger.

The concert was organised by Panjab University Campus Students Council joint secretary Jasvinder Rana, who was booked in a case five days ago after a brawl at the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) office in Sector 15. He was booked under bailable sections.

The Chandigarh administration had permitted Friday’s concert at PU despite police flagging concerns regarding crowd management and security on the campus. The police had denied permission for the concert of Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan on March 25, citing space constraints at the venue near University Business School.

This is the second death on the campus in four months after a visitor in boys hostel number 7 died of drug overdose on November 19, 2024.