3 PAU students held for assaulting driver

With the increasing traffic on city roads, the instances of road rage too are on the rise. While verbally abusing a fellow driver on the road is a common sight, a violent case of road fury occurred last evening when three students of the Punjab Agricultural University allegedly thrashed a taxi driver near the Jagraon Bridge. The driver’s fault— he did not let the boys overtake his vehicle.

The students have been rounded up by the police and an FIR has been lodged at Division Number 2 police station. These accused — Gurdeep Singh, a resident of Moga, Vikramdeep, a resident of Doraha and Jaspreet Singh, a resident of BRS Nagar in the city — are all postgraduate students of the university.

According to the police, the incident occurred last evening when taxi driver Balbir Singh was coming from the Jalandhar bypass. When his Indica car reached the Jagraon Bridge, another car in which these students were travelling first over took Balbir Singh’s vehicle and later stopped him in the middle of the road. The police said that after abusing the driver, they assaulted him using Hockey sticks. The drama continued for over 10 minutes after which the students left the injured driver on the bridge.

The SHO, meanwhile, added that, “The incident took place as the taxi driver did not give the boys space to overtake. We have also impounded the car.” When asked whether the boys were under the influence of alcohol, Harinder Singh said, “A medical test of the accused and the victim was conducted and none were found to be under the influence of liquor.”