A day after “violence, arson and vandalism” at Lovely Professional University (LPU) came under judicial scanner with the filing of a petition in public interest, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday called for a status report in the matter from the State of Punjab.Taking up the matter, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor made it clear that the report was required to specify whether the incident referred to in a post on a social media platform had actually taken place.The Bench verbally observed during the course of the hearing that social media posts had become a nuisance.The unverified post, circulated among the varsity students, had alleged that a worker had raped a girl student on the campus and the university had sent her home. The petitioner had added that the post suggested the girl had subsequently ended her life.The Bench also questioned the State on its obligations when it came across the fact that such a thing had not actually happened but had been reported. The State, in turn, contended that the matter was under investigation and it could not, at the current stage, be stated that the incident had not occurred.The Bench, however, sought clarity on the status of the alleged incident.“In the event such incident has occurred, what action has been taken and vice-versa would be clarified. It would also be clarified that if such incident has not occurred, what action was taken for the social media post to be deleted by the concerned…. What followed thereafter will also be clarified in the status report filed under the signatures of the Commissioner of Police.”The matter will now come up for further hearing on October 8.The petitioner was represented in the matter by senior advocate Gaurav Chopra, while Additional Solicitor-General of India Satya Pal Jain appeared for the Union of India. Senior advocate and Additional Advocate-General Chanchal K Singla argued on the State’s behalf.The petition, seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was filed by a student. Among other things, he had pointed out the varsity founder and chancellor, Dr Ashok Kumar Mittal, is a sitting Member of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) from Punjab.“He left the Aam Aadmi Party, which governs the State, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in April 2026, and the Assembly elections are due in early 2027”.In his petition, student Ravi Raj submitted: “On the strength of that post and WhatsApp messages, about 2,000 students gathered outside hostel GH-3. At about 2 am, a section of them blocked National Highway No. 44 between Phagwara and Jalandhar. Through the night and into the next morning, students and outsiders set several buildings on fire, broke doors, glass and turnstile gates, entered buildings and looted goods and materials, and attacked the staff who tried to calm them. The violence has not stopped since,” he submitted.The petitioner added he had reliably learnt that a large number of outsiders including men and women, mostly in their 30’s, arrived at the campus. Some of them were in “open cars and other vehicles”. They were even carrying walkie-talkies and brandishing swords, rods, guns and sickles and with their faces well covered to conceal their identity.They forcibly opened and broke the varsity’s main gates, leading to criminal trespassing. They also indulged in vandalism, destroyed and burnt CCTV cameras, computers, UPS, LED screens, turnstile gates, boom barriers, and security offices and attacked the security guards; set several places on fire, the petitioner alleged, adding that they looted shops, laptops, mobiles, bank branches and ATMs on the campus.“Some hosteller students of LPU and some LPU students staying in PG accommodations outside the LPU Campus were also involved in this entire violent incident but majority of them were outsiders,” the petitioner submitted.He added these were “clear marks” that the protest was not a spontaneous, but well-planned and organised attack controlled by some people/organisation in the background, who had malafide intentions to defame the university, and especially to disturb the atmosphere in the State.“Only a night earlier, similar claims that two girl students had gone missing or had died by suicide set off violence at Chitkara University, Rajpura, where the university and the police stated that no such incident had occurred. Such incidents of violence hurt the students of the University more than anyone else and moreover created environment of terrorism in the university,” he added.The petitioner contended that the police had information of the gathering at about 1:45 am. Yet, the blockade, the arson and the looting went on for hours, and no arrests were made against this vandalism. The police authorities had also given conflicting accounts of the claim itself. The Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) in his statement given to media clearly said all the allegations of rape and suicide were rumours. Even the Senior Superintendent of Police, Kapurthala, called the alleged incident a ‘rumour’.“Yet, later the same day the police registered an FIR No. 162 dated September 27 against unnamed accused under Section 64 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 alleging the rape of an unnamed and unidentified girl victim at hostel GH-3 without any evidence and verification,” he added.