Rumour Riots: How Unverified WhatsApp Claims Triggered Violent Protests at 2 Punjab Private Universities

LPU Chitkara students protest unverified rape rumour as violence erupts at both Punjab private universities within 48 hours: highway blocked, police vehicle vandalised, no complaints confirmed.

North Desk Correspondent

Chandigarh, September 27

LPU Chitkara Students Protest: Two of Punjab’s largest private universities were rocked by violent student unrest within 48 hours of each other, both triggered not by confirmed crimes but by unverified rumours of sexual assault, suicide and disappearance that spread through student WhatsApp groups and social media before either administration or police could respond.

LPU Phagwara: Highway blocked, campus set alight

LPU Chitkara Students Protest: At Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Phagwara, around 2,000 students gathered near Girls’ Hostel GH3 in the night between Saturday and Sunday, after rumours began circulating on social media that a female student had been raped, allegedly involving a campus worker. Some versions of the rumour additionally claimed the student had died by suicide.

The gathering escalated into vandalism. Students smashed window panes, hurled flower pots, resorted to stone-pelting, and set parts of university property on fire. The unrest spilled onto the Jalandhar-Phagwara national highway, which protesting students blocked for several hours.

Kapurthala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gaurav Toora said police had received no complaint and found no evidence to substantiate the rape or suicide claims. “So far, we have found no substantiating evidence to corroborate the incident, and no complaint has been received by us,” Toora said, adding that the unrest may have stemmed from “a misunderstanding” between students and the university administration. Police said the students’ actions amounted to rioting and vandalism, and that heavy damage was caused to university property.

Chitkara University, Rajpura: ‘Ghost’ rumour and missing-students claim

LPU Chitkara Students Protest: Roughly 36 hours earlier, on the night of Friday, September 25, a similar pattern played out at Chitkara University near Rajpura in Patiala district.

Students gathered late at night after unverified claims spread that two female students had died by suicide or gone missing, with some accounts adding that screams had been heard from a girls’ hostel. A section of the rumour tied the unrest to the belief that the “ghost” of a former student who had died by suicide on campus in the past was haunting a hostel.

The protest turned confrontational, with students clashing with police and allegedly vandalising a Punjab Police patrol vehicle along with campus property.

University Registrar Col. Rakesh Sharma (Retd) addressed the students directly, denying that any suicide or death had occurred on campus. “There has been no such incident in the university. These are rumours being spread on social media,” the university said in a statement, urging students to rely only on official communication. DSP Sukhdev Singh, along with the Rajpura SHO and Rajpura Sadar SHO, reached the campus to assess the situation. The university said academic and placement activities would continue as scheduled.

Police said they were verifying whether any students were in fact missing, though no complaint confirming the claims had been received.
Reports on Sunday indicated a fresh midnight protest continued at Chitkara, with students demanding accountability from the management over who was responsible for the unrest, even as the underlying rumour remained unverified. Separately, Meta reportedly removed a viral video linked to the controversy from its platform on September 26.

LPU Chitkara Students Protest: A pattern, not an isolated incident

LPU Chitkara Students Protest: The two episodes, days apart, follow a near-identical arc: an unverified claim of sexual violence, death or disappearance begins circulating on student WhatsApp groups and social media; it spreads faster than any official confirmation or denial can follow; a large crowd assembles at a hostel; the gathering turns to vandalism, sometimes targeting police vehicles or highways; and only after the unrest peaks do the university and police step in to state that the underlying incident could not be verified.

This is not the first time LPU’s Phagwara campus has seen unrest triggered by a hostel-linked death. In September 2022, the campus saw a major protest after a first-year B.Design student died by suicide, with an FIR later registered against a professor named in the student’s suicide note.

Students at the time also alleged a second, undisclosed suicide had occurred on campus days earlier — a claim the administration disputed. LPU has also previously seen unrest over unrelated flashpoints, including a 2025 incident in which Kashmiri students said they were targeted by a group from the campus following the Pahalgam attack.

Neither LPU nor Chitkara has, as of this report, confirmed any sexual assault, death or disappearance connected to this week’s protests. Police in both jurisdictions have stated that no complaints corroborating the rumours had been filed at the time of the unrest.

(This is a developing story. North Desk will update as police inquiries into the rumours’ origin and the vandalism cases progress.)

ALSO: Asian Games 2026: How Much Do India’s Medal Winners Actually Get?

Follow North Desk on WhatsApp for the latest from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb7ccdxJENy2H87DBG3E