Ahmedabad police arrest 3 more in Gujarat University foreign students’ assault case

The Ahmedabad police on Monday arrested three more men in connection with the alleged assault on foreign students in the hostel premise of Gujarat University on Saturday night when they were offering namaaz.

According to Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) officers, the arrested men have been identified as Kshitij Kamlesh Pandey, 22, a resident of Ambika Apartment in Naranpura; Jitendra Ghanshyam Patel, 31, from Municipal Karmacharinagar in Ghatlodia; and Sahil Arunbhai Dudhtiuva, 21, who lives in Memnagar.

According to a press release, Pandey, who works and lives in a paying guest accommodation in Ahmedabad, is from Gandhidham, and Jitendra Patel is an AC repairman from Kalol in Gandhinagar.

Monday’s arrest takes the number of accused to five Hitesh Rakhubhai Mewada and Bharat Damodarbhai Patel were arrested on Sunday.

A mob of 20-25 had barged into the international boys’ hostel on Saturday night and allegedly assaulted five foreign students of Gujarat University for offering namaz during Ramzan.

These undergraduate and postgraduate students and research scholars have been taken under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) programme. 

Two of them are from African countries and one each from Turkmenistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. According to the police, two students from Sri Lanka and Turkmenistan had to be admitted to a hospital after the attack.

All of the accused were booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 143, 144, (unlawful assembly), 147, 148,149, (rioting, with deadly weapons, offence committed by members of unlawful assembly), 323, 324 (voluntarily causing hurt, by dangerous weapons), 337 (causing hurt by rash or negligent act), 447 (criminal trespass).