The three men were produced in court on Thursday and remanded to three days of police custody. Police have arrested three young men in connection with the vandalism at Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Phagwara, near Jalandhar, last Sunday, after protests over a rumour that a student had been raped.
LPU founder-chancellor Ashok Mittal, a Rajya Sabha MP affiliated with the BJP, said the violence could be part of a “larger conspiracy to harm Punjab”.
This is a question in the heart of every Punjabi today, and in the heart of every person in business today,” he said. Violence broke out on the private university campus after rumours spread among students via social media that a student had been raped. The rumours triggered protests that escalated into vandalism, arson and property damage, and a stretch of the Jalandhar-Phagwara highway was blocked. When asked for details, including the identity of the alleged victim, the location of the incident, or a formal written complaint, the protesters could not provide any information. “We know that Punjab is a border state and shares a border with Pakistan. “All these systems, security and everything are in place. Despite all this, if such an incident happened there, then how safe are we?
“Outsiders” and “anti-social elements” have since been blamed for the violence. Police personnel did not answer further questions from reporters after naming the three arrested persons as “Abhi, Kala and James Dahiya”. Pakistan continues to disrupt peace within our nation in some way or another,” Mittal said. He added that the incident had become “a matter of security of the 3 crore people living in Punjab”. “Punjab is reeling with addiction, gangsters, stealing, kidnapping of young kids, and add to that these kinds of incidents,” Mittal, who has interests across sectors ranging from food, car sales and education, said businessmen in Punjab are feeling “very unsafe”. He said LPU had a security system with face readers for students entering the campus and automated boom barriers for vehicles.
He said he received a phone call on Thursday telling him his nephew had been brought to court.
Outside the court, the maternal uncle of one of the accused said his nephew had been missing for several days. When he got there, he was told only that his nephew had been brought in “in some case”, he said.
