Chandigarh University fire and fraud booking

Chandigarh University is dealing with two very different problems at the same time — one sudden and visible, the other slower and more damaging. On April 29, a fire ripped through the campus food-cart area in Mohali and destroyed nine carts, though no serious injuries were reported. Around the same time, police booked two university employees over claims that 39 international students were tricked into paying fees into personal bank accounts instead of official ones. Put together, the story is not just about one fire and one fraud case. It is about how a big private campus handles safety, money, and trust. (tribuneindia.com) ### Where did the fire happen? The blaze broke out in the street-food zone on campus — the cluster of carts students use like an informal eating strip. Nine carts were gutted. Firefighters got it under control, and the immediate relief is that no student deaths or major injuries were reported. A few first responders suffered minor burns while putting the fire out, which tells you the fire was serious even if it did not turn catastrophic. (tribuneindia.com) ### Why does “nine carts” matter? Because these were not empty structures sitting off to the side. They were part of everyday campus life — the kind of place students pass through constantly. When nine carts burn, it raises the obvious questions: how tightly is electrical use monitored, how close together we(tribuneindia.com)ut the scale of damage suggests the setup was vulnerable once flames spread. That last point is an inference from the extent of destruction. (tribuneindia.com) ### What is the fraud case? Police in Kharar booked two Chandigarh University employees — admission officer Danish Mahajan of Gurdaspur and Akshay Wesley of Pathankot — for allegedly cheating international students in February. The accusation is blunt: they told students to deposit fees into personal bank ac(tribuneindia.com) inside-job fraud. (tribuneindia.com) ### How big was the alleged scam? Police say 39 international students were duped of about ₹23.7 lakh — roughly ₹24 lakh in rounded coverage. That matters because it was not one confused payment or one disputed receipt. It was a repeated pattern affecting dozens of students, which makes the alleged fraud lo(tribuneindia.com)oney, but to hide the trail long enough for the scheme to keep going. (tribuneindia.com) ### Why are international students the center of this? International students are often more exposed during admissions and fee-processing because they are navigating a new system, sometimes remotely, and may rely heavily on staff intermediaries. That does not prove guilt in this case — police have booked th(tribuneindia.com)tution has a much bigger problem than one criminal case. (tribuneindia.com) ### Are the two incidents connected? No direct link has been reported. One is a campus fire. The other is an alleged financial fraud from February that surfaced in a police case now. But they do connect in a broader way: both point to operational weak spots. One asks whether crowded campus commerce is being managed safely. The other asks whether fee collection and oversight were tight enough to protect vulnerable students. (tribuneindia.com) ### What should matter next? The next thing is not drama. It is process. For the fire, people will want to know the cause and whether the food-cart area is redesigned or inspected more aggressively. For the fraud case, the real test is whether students get their money back, how the university audits fee hand(tribuneindia.com)t once. (tribuneindia.com) ### Bottom line A fire can be called an accident until an investigation says otherwise. A fraud booking is still an allegation until the case is proved. But both episodes hit the same nerve — students need a campus that is physically safe and administratively trustworthy. Right now, Chandigarh University is being forced to prove both. (tribuneindia.com)