Over 10 days after the violence at Lovely Professional University following unverified reports about a female student’s alleged rape, the Kapurthala police have tracked down the main source from where the post alleging sexual assault was first uploaded on the social media platform “Reddit”.
After getting concrete information from Reddit’s headquarters in the United States, the technical and cyber cell experts of Punjab Police zeroed in on an IP address used by a first-year female student of LPU.
A police official privy to the probe said in her detailed statement recorded by the special investigation team (SIT), the girl admitted that her Reddit post was based on hearsay and she only wanted to express her views on social media.
“The user had uploaded the post related to sexual assault with another girl twice, on September 24 and September 26, before deleting it. It was the same post that went viral through social media and students got enraged without checking its veracity,” the official said.
Meanwhile, Kapurthala senior superintendent of police (SSP) Gaurav Toora said the Punjab Police had written to Reddit headquarters in US to provide all information related to the user who uploaded the particular post.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, Kapurthala senior superintendent of police (SSP) Gaurav Toora said the Punjab Police had written to Reddit headquarters in US to provide all information related to the user who uploaded the particular post.
{{/usCountry}}“Following a written reply from Reddit, we recorded the statement of the user, whose identity cannot be disclosed. We are scrutinising her statement and further investigating into the intentions behind it,” Toora said.
Widespread violence broke out on the campus on September 26 after unverified reports circulated alleging that an outsider had raped a female student at the university. A masked mob allegedly vandalised university property, set fire to campus buildings and damaged police vehicles. Protesters also allegedly pelted police personnel with stones and glass bottles before moving onto the Amritsar-Delhi National Highway (NH-44).
17 arrested so far in the case
As many as 17 students have been arrested for vandalising LPU property and torching three police vehicles on September 26.
SSP Toora said multiple teams had been constituted and raids were being conducted in several states to arrest the accused, who were identified on the basis of technical and digital evidences collected from the spot.
Three FIRs were registered on September 28 on complaints filed by on-duty police personnel under Sections 109 (attempt to murder), 132 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant), 221 (obstructing a public servant), 309 (robbery), and 324 and 326 (mischief and property damage) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Two FIRs were lodged at the Sadar police station in Phagwara, while the third was registered at the Satnampura police station in Kapurthala district.
Additional charges were pressed under the National Highways Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. Kapurthala police had earlier registered a rape case under Section 64 of BNS against unidentified suspects, though the identity of the alleged victim has not yet been established.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Police will be submitting a detailed status report about the investigation so far before the Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday.
On October 1, the court directed the police to submit status report following public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a BTech student of LPU, seeking a court-monitored CBI investigation into the incident.