Chitkara University Unrest: Two Arrested for Provoking Students Through Social Media

Patiala Police have arrested two men for allegedly provoking students through social media during the unrest that rocked Chitkara University's Rajpura campus on the night of September 25-26. The accused — Himanshu of Nangal and Aryan of Ambala — were picked up after police traced the inflammatory posts that set off a night of violence on the campus.

How the rumour spiralled

The unrest began after false claims spread across student social-media groups that two girl students had died by suicide — or had gone missing — from the girls' hostel. Hundreds of students gathered late on Friday night, and the protest turned violent: the campus was vandalised, two police vehicles were damaged and an officer was manhandled. Police have since confirmed that no deaths occurred and no students went missing. Rajpura Civil Hospital records show no post-mortems were conducted; the ambulance seen on campus was returning a student from the hospital. Chitkara University also issued a clarification that no death or suicide had occurred at the girls' hostel and urged students not to spread unverified information.

Police crackdown on rumour-mongers

The arrests of Himanshu and Aryan mark a shift towards targeting those who fuel campus unrest online. Police say the two allegedly provoked students through social media, and investigators are examining the digital trail of the rumours — including a prank involving eerie sounds, screams heard on the night of September 24, and the misreading of an ambulance's presence — to establish how the false narrative took hold.

High Court steps in, asks about a link

On October 2, the Punjab and Haryana High Court asked the state to file a status report by October 8 on whether there was any link between the unrest at Chitkara University and the violence at Lovely Professional University days later, which began with strikingly similar viral claims. The court directed that the affidavit clarify whether false information was disseminated on social media about both institutions and whether there was a deliberate attempt to create unrest — a question that now hangs over both campuses.