AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court on Monday said it should not be made a probe agency and every incident is not a matter of PIL, in reference to an attack on students hailing from foreign countries at a university hostel in Ahmedabad.
The foreign national students were attacked while offering namaz at their hostel on Saturday night. The incident prompted the university to relocate foreign students to a new wing and engage ex-servicemen to bolster security.
A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee refused to take suo motu (on its own) cognisance of the incident and said police will look into it.
The bench asserted that the High Court cannot assume the responsibilities of law enforcement agencies.
"The city's incidents don't automatically qualify as PIL matters. PIL jurisdiction doesn't extend to every event here. Let's refrain from casting us (judges) as inspectors or investigators. We have our Police force for that purpose. Our role is that of a court, not an investigative agency," the Chief Justice remarked.
The court made the remarks after a lawyer requested it to take up the issue as a suo motu PIL (public interest litigation).
Nevertheless, Koshti persisted, urging the HC to address the issue, citing inadequate police investigation. However, the High Court dismissed this plea as well, advising, "Mr. Counsel, you have alternative legal avenues. Kindly pursue those before approaching us."
5 arrested in connection with attack
Meanwhile, the Gujarat Police arrested three more individuals in connection with the attack on Monday. They are Ahmedabad residents --- Kshitij Pandey (22), Jitendra Patel (31), and Sahil Dudhatiya (21). They were subsequently transferred to the local police's custody for continued investigation. This brings the total number of arrested suspects to five.
The city crime branch had previously apprehended two individuals, Hitesh Mevada and Bharat Patel, on Sunday.
Muslim students from places like Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and African countries were attacked on Saturday night by a group of individuals donning saffron shawls at the Gujarat University hostel while they were offering namaz near the facility's block. According to the students, since there was no mosque on the Ahmedabad-based campus, they had assembled inside the hostel to perform taraweeh, a nightly prayer during Ramadan. A student from Afghanistan said that a mob then came and shouted slogans, questioning their right to pray in the hostel. "They even assaulted us within our rooms, destroying laptops, phones, and vandalizing bikes," he recounted.
As per earlier police statements, two students, one from Sri Lanka and another from Tajikistan, required hospitalization following the incident which occurred in the A-block hostel.
An FIR was registered against 20-25 people under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including rioting, unlawful assembly, voluntarily causing hurt, damage to property, and criminal trespass, among others.
Univ takes quick measures post attack; civil societies demand strict action
There are around 300 international students enrolled at the Gujarat University, including from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Sri Lanka and countries in the African continent, police said.
Meanwhile, taking immediate measures, the government-run university has decided to transfer international students to a separate hostel designated for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) within three days.
Additionally, a foreign student advisory committee has been established, along with the deployment of ex-Army personnel to fortify the hostel premises' security.
Gujarat University's Vice Chancellor, Neerja Gupta, announced the immediate replacement of the study abroad program coordinator and NRI hostel warden.
Civil rights NGO People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said the attack on the international students was deeply concerning and demanded stern action against the perpetrators.
The state organising committee of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) also condemned the incident and demanded action against the miscreants as well as policemen who, according to the NGO, were present there but did not save the students from the attack.
Gujarat-based businessman and former chancellor of Hyderabad's Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Zafar Sareshwala, wrote on X that he has discussed the issue with senior state government officials and expressed hope that such incidents will not recur.
Sareshwala also replied to posts on his tweet saying the students had taken permission from the authorities and that "Taraweeh in Ramadan Kareem has been going on for years", indicating that the place near the hostel block has been designated to offer namaz.
(With additional inputs from PTI)
