‘We will keep coming to you’: Police assure Chandigarh University students
The protests continued on the campus till late Sunday night with senior officials from the district administration, police and university trying to pacify the students.
Senior police officials spoke to protesting students late on Sunday night to pacify them as protests rocked the campus of Chandigarh University over allegations that objectionable videos of several women students were recorded and leaked by a hosteller, which university dismissed as “false” and “baseless”. Deputy Inspector General of Police GS Bhullar assured the students that “law is being followed” and stressed “implicit faith is necessary.”
“We will keep coming to you, implicit faith is necessary,” DIG GS Bhullar told the students, as quoted by ANI.
Police had to repeatedly clarify that a woman student appeared to have shared a video of herself with a 23-year-old youth, stated to be her boyfriend, and that no objectionable video of any other student was found. After a preliminary investigation, police arrested the woman student, while the youth, who has been identified as Sunny Mehta, was held in Himachal Pradesh and handed over to the Punjab Police. Mehta belongs to a local village under the Rohru Sub division of Shimla district, nearly 130 km away from the northern town.
Bhullar said that there was a communication gap earlier, and the police are trying to bridge that.
“The issue has been of communication gap. We have been clarifying again and again. We are assuring students that law is being followed and all legal procedures are being undertaken,” DIG Bhullar said.
Rumours of suicide by a university student also started doing rounds on Sunday morning as videos of the protest emerged. Mohali Deputy Commissioner Amit Talwar informed that there had been no information about suicide so far.
“No information about suicide has come out. It is a rumour that has been spread. We have not been brought forward any information that a suicide has taken place,” DC Talwar said.
A 31-year-old man, Rankaj Verma, had also been detained by Himachal Police and was handed over to Punjab Police.
“Punjab Police has arrested and has left with the accused from Rohru in case FIR no 194/22 dt 18/9/22 u/s 354C IPC, 66E IT act PS Sadar Kharad Punjab. The 23-year accused, resident of Rohru has been handed over to them,” read a statement of Shimla Police.
“It is a matter of videos being shot by a girl student and later circulated. FIR was registered in the matter and the accused student was arrested. No death reported related to this incident. As per medical records, no attempt (to commit suicide) was reported,” said Senior Superintendent of Police, Mohali Vivek Soni on Chandigarh University row.
