PS5, iPhones, Prada perfumes looted from LPU's Uni Mall, but books go untouched

The stocked-up Sony PlayStation 5s were gone. So did mobile phones, laptops, expensive perfumes, and lakhs of rupees in cash. Glass counters were smashed, shelves were emptied and even phones that customers had left for repairs were taken from Lovely Professional University (LPU)'s Uni Mall after a student protest turned violent over the weekend. But, amid the broken glass facades and ransacked stores, something was left untouched. The books.

"They looted all the other shops but left the books," a person at the LPU's Uni mall told The Lallantop, India Today Digital's sister portal. Asked why, the response was, "They left the books because they were of no use to them. Whatever they thought would be useful, they picked up and took away."

Uni Mall, inside LPU's Phagwara campus, was vandalised, and several shops were looted during unrest on the intervening night of September 26 and 27. LPU's Uni Mall is a multi-storey, air-conditioned shopping complex inside the Phagwara campus. It houses shops, eateries, book and stationery stores, electronics outlets and other services for students and staff. Shopkeepers told The Lallantop that PS5s, phones, laptops, expensive perfumes, electronic accessories and cash were among the things taken, with some estimating their losses in tens of lakhs.

Videos of the looting have also gone viral on social media, showing people with their faces covered with bandannas ransacking shops and carrying away goods. LPU students have claimed that those involved were outsiders. However, some videos that have surfaced also appear to show people claiming that students were among those involved in the looting. "Free ki shopping chal rahi hai bhai," a man says in one of the videos narrating what was happening.

Books, however, were left untouched even as stores around them were ransacked.

New Delhi-based history coach and author Siddharth's Echelon, took to X to share a few videos of the looting and said, "Ironically, no one even touched bookshops. They didn't even tear the posters of those shops."

"Priorities are crystal clear," wrote a person named Taniya Verma, on X.

The LPU on Tuesday put around 30-40 students under the scanner for alleged involvement in the violence and vandalism. The university is examining CCTV footage and other material to identify those responsible. Dean of Student Welfare, Prof Sourabh Lakhanpal also alleged that outsiders were involved, pointing to videos of masked people carrying rods, while saying any wider conspiracy remained a matter for investigation.HOW THE LPU PROTEST ERUPTED

The violence and vandalism followed protests at the LPU campus after claims of a female student being sexually assaulted began circulating among students and on social media. Students came out of their hostels in large numbers, and the protest later turned violent. Uni Mall was vandalised and traffic was disrupted on the Jalandhar-Phagwara stretch of NH-44.

LPU rejected claims of a sexual assault on campus as "false, baseless and fabricated". Police subsequently registered a case on a complaint and constituted an SIT to investigate the allegations and the violence.

It has not been independently established that everyone involved in the looting was an LPU student. Students have alleged that outsiders were also present during the unrest, and police have been examining CCTV footage to identify those involved.PS5s, PHONES AND PRADA PERFUMES LOOTED FROM LPU'S UNI MALL

The scale of what happened inside Uni Mall becomes clearer in The Lallantop's ground report by Neha Dhiman. She walked through floors covered in broken glass. Billing counters had been smashed. Air-conditioners and refrigerators were damaged. Shelves that shopkeepers said were packed with goods a day earlier were nearly empty.

At one point, a person in the report said, "Look, they have taken away our PS5s."

In another two-second video that went viral on social media on Monday, a man with his face covered by a green bandana was seen carrying a PS5. The person recording the video exclaimed, "Bhai, humaare PS5 le aaye hain" (This Brother has got his hands on a PS5).

The Sony PS5 is a premium current-generation gaming console and among the best options for high-end console gaming, with the disc-edition PS5 Slim listed at around Rs 54,990 in India. However, retail prices can vary.

In another video, a man with a white handkerchief covering his face was seen posing with a Lenovo laptop box.

At a departmental store in the Uni Mall, the manager said Rs 6-7 lakh in cash was missing from the counter. He estimated the store's overall loss at around Rs 80-90 lakh, including inventory that he said was worth Rs 70-80 lakh.

Then there were the perfumes, which the man said were looted. "There were perfumes priced at Rs 15,000-17,000. There were Prada perfumes, Armani perfumes. All the high-end perfumes," a person told The Lallantop.

Asked whether the Prada and Armani perfumes had also been taken, the response was, "Yes, they took the perfumes. They filled up and carried away the other merchandise too."

Our in-house columnist and satirist Kamlesh Singh, popularly known as Tau, delivered a punchline, reacting to the loot videos. "When you tell the young that the country belongs to them and the governments have denied them what rightfully belongs to them, you can't deny them a simple PS5 or Prada Amber Homme," he wrote on X.EVEN PHONES LEFT FOR REPAIR LOOTED FROM LPU MALL

The electronics shops inside the LPU's Uni Mall appear to have suffered some of the biggest losses. A shopkeeper told The Lallantop's Dhiman that he had new phones, second-hand phones and devices customers had handed over for repairs. He said even those were taken.

"They didn't even spare customers' phones that had been brought in for repair. There were second-hand phones and new phones," he said.

The shopkeeper said around Rs 2 lakh in cash was also stolen from his counter. Mobile phone accessories were gone too.

"All the hardware accessories like AirPods, headphones, cables, data cables, original Apple cables, Samsung cables, boAt products and accessories from all the brands, absolutely nothing is left here now," he said.

He estimated the loss at more than Rs 50 lakh. Repair equipment was damaged too, including a microscope, which he valued at Rs 70,000.advertisementMISCREANTS BROKE CCTVs, TOOK DVR; CCD FURNITURE's BROKEN TOOIt wasn't only merchandise that disappeared. Shopkeepers told Dhiman that laptops, servers and surveillance equipment were also missing. "They took cellphones and laptops. They took the server, and even the DVR," a person said.

At another shop, the security camera was still there. Its memory card wasn't. "This is the camera. It had a 512 GB memory card, and that memory card is no longer here," the shopkeeper said. He believed whoever removed it knew where the footage was stored.

"These were people who knew where the camera footage would be stored. Whoever did this knew where everything was," he said.

At the departmental store, the manager said the billing counter had been broken open and the cash removed. He said racks, cameras and air-conditioners were damaged while the personal-care section was almost emptied. At a cafe, an employee described much the same scene. The employee said an oven and several days' cash were also taken.

The Lallantop report showed a Cafe Coffee Day outlet with damaged furniture, broken glass and smashed equipment. Lovely Sweets and several electronics outlets also bore signs of extensive damage.

But nobody came for the bookstore in LPU's Uni Mall. That was the most telling sight in the ransacked mall. A person on X, KadwaSach, wrote, "At LPU Punjab, the GenZ looters raided a mall and looted laptops, cash, PS5 etc. You know what remained untouched ? Two bookshops. Says a lot."

But beyond the visuals of vandalism and looting was the sobering sight of the shopkeepers trying to figure out how they would start all over again. "Look, this was a lifetime's earnings invested here," a person said.- Ends(Written by: Sushim Mukul)