LPU Chancellor Denies Campus Rape Claim After Violent Student Protests Rock Phagwara

A wave of unrest that shut down one of Punjab’s largest private universities has left students, parents and educationists asking hard questions about how quickly online rumours can turn a campus into a flashpoint.

On the night of 26-27 September, messages began circulating among students at Lovely Professional University in Phagwara alleging that a female student had been sexually assaulted on campus by an outsider. The claim, which first appeared on Reddit and then spread rapidly on WhatsApp and other platforms, led to large gatherings near the girls’ hostels. By morning the protest had escalated. Students blocked National Highway 44, vehicles were damaged, some property was set on fire, and police had to step in. Classes were suspended and mid-term exams postponed as the university tried to restore order.

Four days later, LPU founder-chancellor and Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Kumar Mittal spoke publicly for the first time on the episode. Addressing the media, he stated that the rumour was “completely false.” Initial inquiries, he said, had confirmed that no such incident took place. “It was done to destabilise LPU,” Mittal added. He noted that a similar unverified claim had surfaced at Chitkara University in Rajpura just 24 hours earlier. The back-to-back nature of the two episodes, he argued, pointed to a “highly organised conspiracy” by malicious elements, possibly from within the state, outside it, or even from abroad.

Mittal further claimed the episode was part of an attempt to create divisions between Hindu and Sikh communities in Punjab and to spread anarchy. He also referred to videos of people climbing on a MiG-23 aircraft displayed at the university gate as a memorial gifted by the Air Force, saying such acts demoralised the armed forces and compromised national security.

Police investigations so far have not identified a victim or an accused in the alleged assault. No formal complaint of rape was registered in connection with the original rumour. An FIR was later filed against unknown persons, and a special investigation team is examining the origin and spread of the social media posts. University authorities have maintained that anti-social elements exploited the situation, with some outsiders joining the student crowd and contributing to the damage.

For thousands of students who study at LPU, many of them from outside Punjab and even from abroad, the episode has been deeply unsettling. Parents watching the videos of blocked highways and damaged campus property have been left anxious about safety and the reliability of information that reaches their children. At the same time, teachers and administrators are confronting the reality that one unverified post can upend academic calendars, damage infrastructure and erode trust almost overnight.

The university has since announced a phased return to online classes followed by offline sessions, signalling an attempt to regain normalcy. Yet the larger question remains how institutions can respond faster to online misinformation before it hardens into panic and violence. Campus security protocols, the speed of official communication, and the responsibility of students to verify claims before amplifying them are all under sharper scrutiny after this week’s events.

Mittal’s strong denial has brought some clarity, but the investigation into who planted the rumour and why continues. For now, the focus for most students and parents is simpler: whether the campus feels safe enough to resume full academic life without the shadow of the next viral claim.