Violent protests broke out at Punjab’s Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Jalandhar late on Saturday after unverified reports of a rape and suicide circulated on social media, a day after similar claims rocked the campus of Chitkara University in Patiala.
Police deployed from 3 districts
Patiala senior superintendent of police Harmandeep Singh Hans said no suicides or deaths were reported on the campus either by the students or their families. At LPU, protesting students damaged property, smashed window panes and set parts of buildings inside the campus on fire. The also blocked the Delhi-Amritsar national highway outside the university around 4am, demanding registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against the alleged accused. “The situation is under the control as we have resumed the vehicular traffic on the national highway.
Kapurthala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gaurav Toora said police from Jalandhar Rural, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala were called to the campus after the control room received information about a law-and-order situation at around 2am. The students have some issues with the varsity administration for which the police and civil administration have initiated communication with the management,” SSP Toora said. The protests were triggered by rumours alleging that a female student was raped and that she later died by suicide, according to Toora. He said the Kapurthala police had not received any complaint related to such an incident in recent days.
