A major controversy has erupted at Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Phagwara as students featured in a university-released video, intended to quell rape allegations, claim their consent was not obtained, leading to widespread abuse and harassment.
Key Points
- LPU students protested over alleged rape claims on campus, leading to property damage and highway blockage.
- The university released a video featuring three female students to dismiss the rape allegations.
- The featured students later claimed the university used their video without consent, cropped it, and they are now facing abuse and harassment.
- LPU Registrar Dr Monica Gulati maintained that the allegations were 'false, baseless and fabricated' and part of a conspiracy to tarnish the university's reputation.
- Traffic on National Highway-44, blocked for over 15 hours by students, was restored, and the situation was brought under control by police.
A day after Lovely Professional University (LPU) here released a video of three female students allegedly dismissing claims of a student's rape on the campus, the trio on Monday said the institution had not taken their consent before posting the video and that they were facing abuse and harassment.
University's Response And Student Claims
LPU students went on a rampage on the campus on Sunday over claims that a female student had been raped by a plumber on the university premises three days ago.
In a bid to pacify the students, the private university released a video featuring the three young women, who allegedly said that no rape had taken place in the hostel.
However, on Monday, they posted a video on social media, claiming that the clip put out by the university was cropped.
"Our video has been trimmed and posted on Instagram. We had no idea about this, and no consent was taken from us. Now, unnecessarily, we are being abused," one of the students said in a brief video clip circulating on social media.
"We have no role, please leave us alone," another student said in the clip.
Protest Escalation And Official Statements
The protest began near Girls' Hostel-3 at around 1 am on Sunday and soon spiralled out of control, with students vandalising property and blocking a stretch of the New Delhi-Amritsar Highway outside their campus.
The LPU management, however, maintained that there was no truth in the rumours.
Registrar Dr Monica Gulati on Sunday said some anti-social elements were spreading 'false, baseless and fabricated' allegations.
The university subsequently released a video of over a minute in which Gulati made a brief statement, followed by statements from the three female students of room 504 of the hostel.
In the video, one of the students said, "We are students of room number 504 and nothing of the sort has happened in our room. We have been living in the room for the past two months. Please, students and police should not come to harass us."
Another student said they would involve their parents if they were troubled, while the third said, "And police should not come to our room repeatedly; otherwise, we will call our parents".
At the end of the video, Gulati said the conclusion to be drawn was that 'anti-social elements and individuals with vested interests' were behind the allegations.
"It is a conspiracy to tarnish the university's reputation through false and fabricated rumours."
Traffic movement on National Highway-44 in Punjab's Phagwara, which had been blocked by LPU students for over 15 hours, was restored on Monday, police said, adding that the situation has been brought under control.
