Students at Punjab’s Lovely Professional University (LPU) alleged that a video featuring them, released by the university to counter claims of a girl being raped in a hostel, was scripted.
They were told what to say and that the clip was later “trimmed” and posted without consent, three students claimed.
The allegations came as LPU saw massive protests over claims that a student was raped by a construction worker on the university campus and later died by suicide. A mob allegedly vandalised campus property, set parts of buildings on fire and blocked the Jalandhar-Phagwara highway. They were demanding an FIR against the alleged accused. The third student asked the police to stop repeatedly visiting the room. LPU used the video as part of its response to the rape claims circulating on social media. The student allegedly later died by suicide at her home.
Amid the unrest, LPU’s Instagram and X accounts posted a video featuring registrar Monika Gulati, seeking to counter claims about the alleged incident in Room 504 of Girls’ Hostel 3 (GH3). In the video, Gulati introduces the students as residents of the same room before saying, “I would like you to hear what the girls residing in room number 504 of GH3 told us.
One of the students said she and the other residents had been living in the room for about two months and that no such incident had occurred there. Another said they had been distressed and warned that they would involve their parents if the harassment continued. “We were told that you should say something like, ‘The children keep troubling you.’” The student alleged that only part of the original recording was retained before it was posted on Instagram. Students alleged that the hostel warden forced the victim to leave for her home instead of informing the police, DIG Jalandhar Range Naveen Singla said.
