Gurugram: A fresh FIR has been registered against Jannayak Janta Party’s (JJP’s) youth state president Digvijay Chautala, this time on a complaint from Kurukshetra University, barely days after a case was lodged against him in connection with an alleged rampage at Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology in Haryana’s Hisar.
The Kurukshetra case stems from a JJP event held on 7 April at the university’s Dr RK Sadan venue. The complaint, filed Friday by the university’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) Anand Kumar, accuses Digvijay and eight other party functionaries of damaging university property and disturbing peace at the programme that was billed as a social event.
Vishal Kumar, SHO of Kurukshetra University Police Station, confirmed the FIR registration to ThePrint Monday.
According to the CSO, the venue had been booked on 2 April for what was described as a programme to discourage drug abuse among youth and promote their participation in public life. It was booked through one Ajayab Singh, an assistant professor in the Hindi department, and was cleared on the premise that it was a social event.
On the day of the event, however, 300 to 400 students and outsiders came in attendance. The CSO alleges that no session on drug awareness was held; instead, political speeches were delivered that were likely to stoke rivalry among students. Around 80 chairs were said to be broken and other university property damaged. Security staff and the department of youth and cultural affairs flagged the matter to the university administration.
The university reportedly suspended professor Ajayab Singh later.
The FIR has been registered under Sections 324(4), 329(3) and 61 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, pertaining to mischief, criminal trespass and criminal conspiracy, respectively, against Digvijay, JJP’s senior state vice-president Dr Jasvinder Khaira, programme organiser Vishal Mukumpura, and several others, SHO Kumar informed.
Contacted by ThePrint, Digvijay said the venue had been booked by the JJP through a university faculty member for a 7 April event and he was invited as chief guest for the same.
“Nothing untoward happened till I was there at the venue. However, after I left, I am told some students damaged some chairs. Our party members met the university administration the following day and it was agreed with the university that we would get the chairs repaired. The repair work was started as well but was abruptly stopped by the university authorities,” he said.
“And now, an FIR has been lodged against us,” Chautala added, asking that if, for instance, furniture is damaged in a programme where Chief Minister Nayab Saini is chief guest, will the university lodge an FIR against the CM?
“This action has been taken at the behest of the government,” he alleged.
The JJP is a former ally of the ruling BJP in Haryana.
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Chautalas slam law & order
In Hisar, meanwhile, the police have constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the Friday confrontation between former deputy CM and JJP leader Dushyant Chautala’s convoy and a Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) vehicle, an incident that has since snowballed into a political controversy with Dushyant accusing a police officer of pointing a pistol at him.
DSP Kamaljeet Singh, in a statement, defended the CIA inspector and said Dushyant had been violating Y-Plus security norms by using a private vehicle as a pilot car without authorisation.
Four complaints have been filed, two by Chautala and his security personnel Pradeep Kumar, and two by CIA in-charge Pawan Kumar and another policeman Raj Kumar, the DSP said. No FIR has been registered so far, with statements of all those involved currently being recorded.
The DSP denied that Pawan Kumar was carrying a firearm when he stepped out of his vehicle. During the preliminary inquiry, it also emerged that one of the pilot vehicles in Chautala’s convoy had been challaned four times for overspeeding.
The confrontation took place near the old vegetable market in Hisar when Dushyant and Digvijay were travelling from the city police station towards the mini secretariat. A CIA vehicle allegedly overtook the convoy’s security vehicle, following which the in-charge stepped out in what witnesses described as a threatening manner. Dushyant also got out of his vehicle and attempted to stop the CIA vehicle before it drove away.
The episode has had one unintended consequence, however. It seems to have brought the Chautala clan together across party lines.
Though Dushyant’s uncle, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Abhay Singh Chautala, is yet to comment on the issue, Ranjit Singh, younger brother of INLD patriarch Om Prakash Chautala who contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Hisar on a BJP ticket and the subsequent assembly election from Rania as an independent, told ThePrint Monday: “If a person who has been a deputy chief minister and Member of Parliament can be intimidated like this, one can only imagine what happens to a common man.”
Aditya Devilal, son of Om Prakash Chautala’s youngest brother Jagdish Chander and INLD MLA from Dabwali, also spoke on the matter.
“This is not just about the Dushyant Chautala episode. Our party’s (state) president Nafe Singh Rathee was shot dead in broad daylight at Bahadurgarh, and the police have failed to deliver justice to his family even now. Gangsters have a free run in Haryana and law and order is in shambles,” he told ThePrint.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)