2 students found shot in head at hostel in Greater Noida university

Police officials said that prima facie the incident appeared “pre-planned” and ruled out the involvement of a third person.

The body of a 22-year-old management student and a critically injured 23-year-old student, both bearing gunshot wounds to the head, were found in a hostel room locked from the inside at a private management institute in Greater Noida on Tuesday.

The incident unfolded at 11.20am when a security guard went to the first-floor lobby to switch off lights and heard cries from room number 127. (Representational image)

Police officials said that prima facie the incident appeared “pre-planned” and ruled out the involvement of a third person. Investigators said they are pursuing two possibilities: whether the case is a murder-suicide or whether both students committed suicide one after the other.

The incident unfolded at 11.20am when a security guard went to the first-floor lobby to switch off lights and heard cries from room number 127. The room was occupied by the older student, a 23-year-old from Agra and son of a retired deputy superintendent of police. His friend, the deceased, was a 22-year-old from Chilukrui in Andhra Pradesh. Both were enrolled at the institute and known to be close friends, investigators said.

When the guard tried to enter, he told police, the door was locked from inside. He alerted the hostel warden and then climbed to the second floor to peer into the room from a balcony. From there, staff saw the two lying in a pool of blood. A ladder was brought, and hostel staff broke the balcony window to enter. The room, police later said, was intact with no signs of struggle.

Both students were rushed to Kailash Hospital, where the Andhra Pradesh native was declared dead on arrival. The Agra-based student remains in critical condition with a bullet wound to his head.

Assistant commissioner of police Vivek Ranjan Rai said the handgun used was a licensed Webley revolver registered in the name of the injured student’s father, a retired officer in Uttar Pradesh Police.

“Two rounds were fired from the revolver. Both bullets pierced the students’ heads and lodged in the wall. We are awaiting forensic results to confirm whether one shot the other before turning the gun on himself, or if both fired separately,” ACP Rai said.

Police recovered the revolver, two empty cartridges, four live rounds, and the fired bullets from the room’s walls. Forensic experts have been asked to examine fingerprints and ballistic evidence, he said. The investigation is underway to determine why the injured student had brought his father’s licensed revolver to college, said ACP Rai.

Investigators said the injured student had returned from Agra on Tuesday morning around 9am, carrying his father’s revolver. His father, police added, had retired just four to five days earlier.

One senior officer said the evidence so far appears to suggest that the incident may be a case of suicide. “The entry and exit wounds on both heads are angled from right to left. It is difficult to determine who fired first. There is a possibility they both shot themselves one after the other. The exact sequence will be established by forensic analysis,” the officer, who asked not to be identified, said.

Another line of inquiry is whether a sudden altercation preceded the firing, with one student shooting the other before turning the gun on himself. Police said the lack of signs of a struggle inside the room, appears to discredit that for now.

The institute’s hostel houses nearly 500 students. Officials confirmed that the two men lived on separate floors -- one on the ground floor and the other on the first.

The shocking episode has left the campus rattled. Police, however, declined to speculate on possible motives until they have spoken to the surviving student, who remains unconscious and unfit for questioning.

When contacted, the institute’s security officer did not respond to queries.