Youths break Lucknow University hostel locks, flee with goods

LUCKNOW: In a daring incident, 12 youths broke into the locked rooms of Birbal Sahni hostel of Lucknow University on Tuesday and took away the belongings seized by the proctorial board from Mahmudabad hostel during a surprise inspection on Monday. Birbal Sahni hostel has been lying vacant since the start of this session.
The miscreants are suspected to be illegal occupants and their aides who were evicted during Monday’s drive.The incident happened on Tuesday but came to light on Wednesday when LU proctor office lodged a police complaint naming two expelled students, Aman Bajpai and Akash Verma, in the case.
During the surprise inspection, LU proctorial team had found four illegal occupants in three rooms of Mahmudabad hostel. Three of them were caught, while the fourth occupant, Aman Bajpai, fled. Unauthorised occupants of four other rooms had fled before the inspection. Belongings of these occupants were seized and kept in a vacant room of Birbal Sahni hostel. However, with 16 hours, the illegal occupants struck back and took away the belongings.
On the basis of CCTV footage, police said about 12 youths with their faced covered came to Mahmudabad hostel on six bikes at 1.36am on Tuesday. They took the security guard hostage and broke the lock of the main gate. Then, one by one, they broke the locks of 13 rooms in search of the belongings. All 12 rooms were vacant but the13th room, Number 39, they broke had the seized belongings which included clothes, beddings, utensils, laptops and books.
LU police outpost in-charge Abhay Singh said the hooligans also broke into the common room and took away immersion rods and beddings. Later, they broke into the central mess opposite the hostel and took away an LPG cylinder along with sacks of rice and pulses.
Two complaints, one by hostel guard and another by proctor office, were lodged with Hasanganj police in connection with the incident. The guard claimed he was held hostage by 40-50 students who threatened him with an iron rod. LU proctor office in its complaint named two miscreants who were identified on the basis of information given by the guard.
Chief proctor Vinod Singh said, “All electronic items seized during Monday inspection were kept at other places on the campus which the youths failed to trace.”