BHU students demand CBI probe into youth's killing in Varanasi

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Varanasi (UP): Scores of Banaras Hindu University students on Friday demanded a CBI probe into the last week's incident where a youth was shot dead at the campus. Some of the students also took out a candle march near BHU, holding placards that read: "We want justice for Gaurav Singh" and "We demand CBI probe."

Gaurav Singh was standing with his friends outside a hostel on April 2 when unidentified bike-borne assailants fired indiscriminately at him. He was rushed to the trauma centre of the BHU's Institute of Medical Sciences, where he succumbed to injuries. Earlier, BHU public relations officer Rajesh Singh had said Gaurav Singh and some other students were suspended from the university for their alleged role in the violent protest at the campus in 2017 over "harassment" of some students.

Gaurav Singh's father, Rakesh Singh, who works as a clerk in the university, said his son was pursuing a master of computer applications there. He lamented that the BHU administration had "stooped so low" that even after his son's death, it was denying that he was a student. Ashutosh Singh, a BHU student leader and a member of the Samajwadi Party students' wing, claimed that he was also targeted, but miraculously escaped unhurt. He said the killing was part of a "larger conspiracy hatched by some of the local politicians, contractors working in BHU, along with some professors of the varsity".

Gaurav Singh's father had registered an FIR against five identified, including the BHU chief proctor, and two unidentified persons. Police have so far arrested three students of the BHU's Birla hostel in connection with the case and recovered a countrymade pistol from their possession. The trio, Ashutosh Tripathi, Kumar Mangalam and Rupesh Tiwari, is said to have confessed that they had a rivalry with Gaurav Singh.

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