Jalandhar: A day after violent unrest erupted at Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Phagwara, Punjab Police on Monday secured all academic and hostel blocks. Internet services around the campus were suspended to prevent the spread of unverified reports and rumours.
Jalandhar deputy inspector general (DIG) Naveen Singla constituted a seven-member special investigation team (SIT), headed by the Phagwara superintendent of police, with student representatives included as members. The students’s demands include the immediate identification and arrest of the accused, investigations into past cases of sexual assault and suicides on campus; implementation of a female-only staff policy in girls’ hostels; resignation of the warden at Girls’ Hostel No. Police have not ruled out an organised effort to destabilise local law and order. Sinha also clarified that walkie-talkies seized during the commotion belonged to off-duty military officers, including a Major, checking on the safety of colleagues’ children.
Scores of police personnel, supervised by SSPs from 10 districts, were stationed on campus. Demonstrators blocked the Amritsar-Delhi National Highway-44 for nearly 12 hours. Kapurthala police registered a rape case under Section 64 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against unidentified persons, though the victim’s identity remains unconfirmed. 3, where the alleged incident took place; elections for student president; and a direct address to protesters by LPU Chancellor and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Mittal Special DGP Sinha confirmed that preliminary CCTV scans of the area, conducted in the presence of student representatives, showed no suspicious activity, though forensic checks remain underway.
Punjab director general of police Gaurav Yadav and special DGP (law and order) PK Sinha inspected security arrangements on the directions of chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday morning. The unrest began on Sunday when a masked mob vandalised university property, torched police vehicles, and set parts of the campus buildings on fire following unverified reports that an outsider had raped a female student recently.
