Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, vice-chancellor of the newly formed Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University at Fatehgarh Sahib in the Indian state of Punjab, was shot and critically injured in an attack on 1 August.
An unknown assailant shot him once with a pistol at close range as he walked through a reception area to meet his staff. The bullet hit him in the temple. He was rushed to hospital in Chandigarh where he remains on life support.
A leading Sikh academic, Ahluwalia was a controversial choice to head the new institution which officially opened on 25 July. In a previous post as vice-chancellor of the Punjabi university in Patiala from 1999 to 2002 he became embroiled in a court case involving allegations of sexual harassment of a postgraduate student, Saru Rana. All charges against him were dropped in January 2010.
The would-be assassin was described as a middle-aged man with a beard. There were unconfirmed reports that he was heard to shout slogans in support of Khalistan, the proposed independent Sikh homeland, before fleeing the scene.