A social media influencer has come under the scanner of the Punjab Police as more original CCTV footage from the DVRs of Lovely Professional University (LPU) surfaced, providing investigators with fresh material to reconstruct the sequence of events that led to violence on the campus on Sunday.
The influencer, part of the LPU student community, has more than 21,000 followers on Instagram and was also seen during the protest negotiating with police officials. Because he was a content creator who had raised several issues during the protest, in a separate social media post, the influencer said he was being targeted. As normalcy started returning to the university campus, several original video clips emerged, showing events inside and around the department of student welfare (DSW) building. The probe teams have begun scanning the footage along with videos circulating on social media to establish their authenticity and identify those present during the violence. Later, another video surfaced in which the influencer appeared to explain his presence inside the DSW building and denied being part of the violent protest. “I was present at DSW but only to appeal to the students not to break any trophies inside DSW. He claimed that he became agitated only after a security guard allegedly hit a female student and some items were damaged.
Sorabh Lakhanpal, executive dean and head of the student welfare wing, said the university had received some information about the influencer and would share the available details with the police. “We have received some inputs about this particular influencer and will share all the details about him and his record with the police probing the matter,” Lakhanpal said. I told them that they could break anything but trophies. I am not part of the violent protest,” he said.
