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Patan: The Opposition Congress on Monday held a protest at Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University (HNGU) here after no police case was registered against three youths caught drinking alcohol in a hostel room on December 8.
The protest was led by Patan Congress MLA Kirit Patel while the participants were from the National Students' Union of India (NSUI).
Following Patel's threat to sit on a fast outside vice chancellor KC Poria's chamber, the university administration wrote a letter urging Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel to give necessary instruction to the local police to lodge a complaint.
On December 8, three basketball players from Anand district, who were allotted a room in the boys hostel by the administration ahead of their district-level tournament in Patan, were caught consuming liquor.
The staff handed them over to the police, which let them off without any action, Patel told reporters.
"Such incidents are happening on a regular basis in the campus but no action is being taken. The police did not take any concrete action despite the trio having tried to run over a varsity employee while attempting to flee in their car on December 8," Patel claimed.
"The University registrar and vice chancellor claimed they had given a complaint to police (but FIR was not registered). We demanded that the administration write to the CM and Home Minister if the police was not filing an FIR despite getting a complaint. We staged a protest over this demand outside the VC's chamber," the MLA said.
During the protest, Patel and some police personnel on the site indulged in a verbal duel after he was refused entry into the vice chancellor's chamber.
The protest was called off after the vice chancellor wrote a letter to the CM and minister of state for home.
"When the incident took place on the night of December 8, the university administration had asked police to take appropriate action. Later, after getting a representation from NSUI, we again requested the police to lodge an FIR a few days ago. We took all necessary steps at that time," the vice chancellor said.
"Today, as sought by MLA Kirit Patel, we have sent a letter to the chief minister for further action. We have also shared the copy of the letter with the MLA," he added.
Gujarat is a dry state where total prohibition is in force.