New Delhi: The Punjab Police Thursday filed a closure report in a case registered on the complaints and a series of allegations about an incident of rape at the Lovely Professional University (LPU).
Deputy Inspector General, Jalandhar Range, Naveen Singla confirmed the development to ThePrint.
The allegation of rape had spiralled into protests and violence on the campus in September. Several police vehicles were torched, and properties of the university were vandalised in the episode.
ThePrint had reported that the violence originated from a rumour among students that a rape allegedly taken place days earlier inside Girls Hostel 3 (GH-3). The university had categorically denied the allegation.
Based on the student representations, an First Information Report (FIR) under Section 64 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was lodged at the Satnampura police station. “Three or four days ago, a girl was raped by an unknown person in GH-3, but no action was taken against him. Please register an FIR and punish the perpetrator,” the FIR said.
The closure report comes a day after Inspector General, Counter Intelligence, Ashish Chaudhary, informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Superintendent of Police Vineet Ahlawat had tried all possible options to trace the purported rape survivor to substantiate the alleged grievous offence.
The High Court was hearing the matter after an LPU student moved a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a fair and transparent probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the case of violence as well as allegations of rape inside the campus.
“The SIT investigated the matter with regard to all the allegations on social media, allegations levelled by the protesters/students and their representatives in detail while relying upon almost 50 statements of various individuals, CCTV footages, documentary records, examination of the digital devices and ultimately found that the allegations of alleged rape were completely unfounded and false,” Chaudhary submitted in the affidavit on behalf of Punjab Police.
‘Rumour spread like wildfire’
The IG further informed that the entire chain of controversy originated from a Reddit post made by a university student with account username ‘u/becklishh’.
“Its not a rumor guys. A male worker raped the girl in GH-3 of LPU, and on complaining, the warden sent that girl home and no action has been taken. This is sick as suicides and rapes are being ignored in this UNI like they’re nothing!!!” read the message posted 24 September.
However, when approached by the investigators, the affidavit mentioned, the student said that there were a series of enquiries made by several students who used to come to the hostel room if there was any incident of the rape that occurred. Similar enquiries were posed by more students, leading to the student to verify the warden’s claims, who too denied it.
“The student’s friends further suggested and discussed that such a serious issue should be raised, so that the actual facts can come out and justice can be delivered. Therefore, on 24.09.2026 she posted on Reddit that the rape has occurred in the campus,” the police said in the affidavit, annexing a copy of her statement given to the investigators.
Additionally, the police found that on 24 September, when the student put out the social media post, one of her roommates was talking to a friend who allegedly told her that a girl was raped in the hostel. Her roommate, the police submitted, posted this information in the WhatsApp group for the hostel’s girl students.
“Therefore, while connecting both the information, she came to believe the information to be true and ultimately uploaded the first post on Reddit. This post ultimately led to a spread of misinformation among students of Lovely Professional University and at this point of time, the said information which was actually a rumor converted into an alleged fact which spread like wild fire amongst the students,” the police informed the court.
The police said that although the post was later deleted, “by that time the post had circulated among the students of LPU.” “Therefore, as per actual fact, no rape took place, which has been established in the investigation through other modes also,” it added.
The police said that a similar incident of violence at Chitkara University had “encouraged” the LPU students to protest against the alleged rape. The pro vice-chancellor, it said, had called the girl students for a meeting only in the wake of the episode of Chitkara violence.
It was found that the student who posted on Reddit, along with other girls, went to the warden after they learnt that the pro vice-chancellor had called some girls for a meeting. The warden, the police said, denied the incident of rape, but to no avail.
The student then went on make another post—‘Negligence of rape in LPƯ—on a newly-made Reddit ID on the intervening night of 26 and 27 September. While the post and the screenshot were later deleted from the phone, the police found the post and timing in forensic analysis of her phone.
“Thus, this post became one of the major reasons for the students at large to believe that an incident of rape has actually occurred. Accordingly, the girls of GH-3 started coming out of the room and gathered on the ground floor in the lawn, and in this manner, the miscommunication and rumour took the form of a protest,” the police informed the court.
Appearing for the LPU student who moved a PIL, senior advocate Gaurav Chopra submitted a list of such posts purportedly still active on social media, prompting the bench headed by Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra to direct the police to take appropriate action.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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