Scolded by lecturer, student shoots him

SONEPAT: A second year BA student shot dead his English lecturer in front of the latter’s daughter at a government college in Sonepat in Haryana on Tuesday, in the second incident of a student attacking a faculty member this year. In January, an expelled Class 12 student shot dead his principal in Yamuna Nagar, also in Haryana.

Rajesh Malik, 40, and his daughter, 14 (she has finished her Class 11 exams and was free) had just arrived at the Shaheed Dalbir Singh College in Pipli village when the accused , identified as Jagmal Singh, walked in, opened fire on Malik, and escaped.

Malik, who was shot four times, was rushed to hospital by staff members, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

A clerk at the college, Jyoti Devi, witnessed the incident and claimed Malik scolded Singh some time ago for harassing a girl in the class, according to the police. Singh may have been instigated into committing the murder by an assistant professor at the college who recently fought with Malik, the police claimed.

The police have booked both Singh on charges of murder and the assistant professor on charges of criminal conspiracy. No

arrest has been made. The police said Singh used a licensed .32 bore pistol belonging to his uncle to kill Malik.

Malik’s body was sent for a postmortem at the Sonepat civil hospital. He suffered two bullet wounds in the back, one in the chest and one in the elbow. He is survived by his wife, who is posted in the ministry of textiles in Delhi, a 16-year-old son who is in Class X (and in the middle of his board exams) and his daughter. Malik's father collapsed after hearing news of his son's death and had to be hospitalised.