PHAGWARA: Three female students of Lovely Professional University (LPU) on Monday said the university did not take their consent before posting a video in which they appeared to dismiss claims of a student’s rape on campus, and said they were now facing abuse and harassment.The students also claimed that the video released by the university had been cropped.The development came a day after LPU released the video featuring the three students in an attempt to pacify protests that had erupted on campus over claims that a female student was raped by a plumber three days earlier.On Monday, the three students posted a video on social media objecting to the university’s use of their earlier recording.“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 the clip circulating on social media.“We have no role, please leave us alone,” another student said.
What LPU had posted earlier
The LPU management had maintained that there was no truth in the rape 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 more than a minute featuring Gulati’s statement followed by comments from the three female students from Room No. 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.”
LPU protest, highway blockade
The protest began near Girls’ Hostel-3 around 1am on Sunday and later escalated, with students vandalising property and blocking a stretch of the New Delhi-Amritsar Highway outside the campus.Traffic movement on National Highway-44 in Phagwara, which had remained blocked by the students for more than 15 hours, was restored on Monday, police said.The situation has also been brought under control.The students’ protest had followed claims that a female student staying on the campus had been raped.Police registered a case on the students’ complaint and formed a special investigation team to probe the allegations.(With PTI inputs)
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