CHANDIGARH: Nine youths, including a juvenile, have been arrested by the Punjab Police in connection with the violence and vandalism at Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Phagwara near Jalandhar, Punjab. Of these, seven alleged accused are university students, while two are outsiders.
The arrested outsiders have been identified as Gagandeep Singh and Jasmeet Kumar, both from Phagwara. The seven students are James Dahiya of Sonipat in Haryana, Ashutosh of Hamirpur in Uttar Pradesh, Antriksh Dutta of Jammu, Sahil Singh of Jammu, Krishna Kumar of Marukiya in Maharashtra, and Bhavishya Karan of Kalyan East in Maharashtra.
The juvenile, a student of LPU from Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, is also among those arrested. He was seen atop a MiG-23 during the vandalism, an iconic image that became the face of the recent protests at the university. According to police, the student’s father is posted as an officer at the Mandi Deputy Commissioner’s office.
A social media influencer, Mohammad Farhat, a first-year BBA student at LPU from Jammu and Kashmir, has also been named in the case. Known for poetry and rap, police are conducting raids to arrest him.
Farhat also remained a viral face of the LPU protests and is a friend of Sahil and Antriksh, according to viral videos circulating online.
Addressing the media on Friday, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Jalandhar Range) Naveen Singla, along with Senior Superintendent of Police, Kapurthala, Gaurav Toora, said around 20 persons had been named in FIR No. 163, registered at Satnampura police station in Kapurthala under Sections 326(g), 324(4) and 309(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 4 of the Punjab Prevention of Damage to Public and Private Property Act, 2014, on September 28. All the arrests have been made in the same FIR.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to investigate the arson, vandalism and violence at LPU. Singla said a detailed probe was currently underway.
“All the arrests had been made on the basis of videos and images retrieved from the campus, as well as material from the internet and other investigation channels,” he said.
During the investigation, police found that a photograph of the juvenile had gone viral on social media following the violence. In the photograph, he is seen standing on a fighter aircraft displayed on the university campus, with flames visible in the background. The image was circulated on social media portraying him as a “hero”. Singla, however, said his exact role and the allegations against him would be determined only after completion of the investigation and legal process.
He said police had also identified and named 20 accused in the case on the basis of CCTV footage, available digital evidence and other information gathered during the investigation.
“As the SIT had formed multiple teams, it scanned digital evidence from various sources, including social media platforms, news channels, CCTV footage from LPU and other sources. The accused were found involved in arson, rioting, robbery, unprovoked lethal attacks on the police force, blocking the National Highway and ransacking LPU infrastructure. Some accused are from the Law Gate area outside the LPU campus, where an ecosystem of students, alumni, traders and dealers exists.
“There are some elements among the accused who remained the face of peaceful protests during the day and indulged in arson and vandalism at night. The arrests have been made following a meticulous probe from all angles, and other culprits would not be spared,” Singla said.
Five of the accused students had been arrested by Thursday, and three had been produced before a Phagwara court.
Another FIR, No. 106, was also registered at Sadar police station, Phagwara, under Sections 109, 132, 221, 326(b), 326(g) and 324(5) of the BNS on charges of arson, robbery, attacks and torching of police vehicles.
Singla said police were also simultaneously investigating the original rape FIR registered at Satnampura police station. The victim in the case had not yet been identified, but the probe was underway, with staff and students being questioned.
Police said the investigation was still underway and the role of other people allegedly involved in stone-pelting, vandalism, violence and arson was being examined. Further legal action will be taken against the arrested accused on the basis of the evidence available in the case