CHANDIGARH: Punjab Police have arrested five people, including two outsiders and a student, in connection with alleged arson, robbery and attempted murder during the recent violence at Lovely Professional University (LPU) campus in Phagwara.
About 20 people have been named in an FIR, police sources said.
A social media influencer known for poetry and rap, who is also an LPU student from Jammu and Kashmir, has also been named in the case. Police are conducting raids to arrest him, sources said.
The arrested people include a pizza delivery executive Gagandeep Singh of Friends Colony and Kamal of Tibbi, both residents of Phagwara and described by police as outsiders, and James Dhaiya, a BTech Computer Science and Engineering student at LPU from Shiv Colony, Gali No 2, in Sonipat, Haryana.
Mohammad Farhat, a first-year BBA student at LPU from Jammu and Kashmir, has also been named in the case.
The arrests were made in connection with FIR No 163, registered at Satnampura police station in Kapurthala district. The five were produced before a local court in Phagwara, which remanded them in police custody for three days.
"The police has produced these alleged accused in the local Phagwara court and taken their three days remand. Now these youth will be questioned and thus one will come to know how they planned and executed it and what was the motive behind it. While Mohd Farhat belonging to Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir has been nominated in the case, the police teams are raiding various places to arrest him," said an officer privy to the investigations of this case.
Sources said about 20 people have been named in FIR, including Farhat, whose videos reportedly circulated on social media during the incidents. Police said the investigation was underway to determine the role of each person named in the case.
Fellow students had allegedly accused Farhat of playing a role in escalating the protests and of being present when the Directorate of Student Welfare (DSW) office and trophy area were allegedly vandalised. The allegations surfaced in a video posted on social media by another student.
Speaking in Delhi, LPU founder, Chancellor and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Mittal alleged that outsiders exploited student unrest and called for a detailed probe into the violence, vandalism and theft at the university.
Punjab Police had initially registered three FIRs against unidentified people in connection with the violence, the blockade of the Delhi-Amritsar National Highway (NH-44) and alleged vandalism and looting at shops inside the university's Uni Mall. A fourth FIR has since been registered, according to police.
The initial FIRs were registered on Sept 28 on complaints filed by on-duty police personnel under Section 109 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), relating to attempt to murder; Section 132, assault or criminal force to deter a public servant; Section 221, obstructing a public servant; Section 309, robbery; and Sections 324 and 326, relating to mischief and property damage. Provisions of the National Highways Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public and Private Property Act were also invoked.
The state police had also constituted an eight-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the violence at LPU. The SIT is headed by Phagwara Superintendent of Police Major Singh and includes three officers of SP rank.
Preliminary findings indicated that several people involved in the violence were university alumni living in rented accommodation outside the campus and originally from other states, sources said.
Sources said the SIT had sought footage from the university's network of about 5,500 CCTV cameras, along with the assistance of dedicated technical personnel to scan digital databases.
Investigators had begun identifying students based on technical evidence gathered at the scene by the police technical and cyber cell teams. These teams were cross-referencing video recordings, surveillance logs and viral social media reels to identify masked instigators, sources said.
The LPU administration had been directed to submit the list of student grievance committee members and full staff availability, while ensuring that no employee resigned or remained absent without explanation during the inquiry. It was also asked to provide an administrative liaison to the SIT to facilitate the probe, sources said.
The violence at the LPU campus erupted on Sunday following unverified reports alleging that an outsider had raped a female student. The protests escalated, with NH-44 blocked and university property vandalised and vehicles set ablaze.
The university has denied the allegation, while police have registered a rape case against an unidentified person and are investigating the claim.
Earlier, police had registered a rape case under Section 64 of the BNS against unidentified suspects, though the identity of the alleged victim has not been established.