Four foreign students thrashed in Gujarat allegedly for smoking and wearing slippers at religious site

Ahmedabad: A mob of about ten people allegedly thrashed four foreign students of a private university following a clash over smoking cigarettes and walking with slippers on a religious site in Vadodara district.

Police said that seven of the suspects have been apprehended after an FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by the varsity official on Sunday.  

The FIR was filed by Ashusinh Rajput alias Ashokbhai,40, who works with Parul University as a head rector. The varsity is located under Vaghodia police station jurisdiction in Vadodara district. 

Rajput has mentioned in the FIR that on 14th March, he received a call from his senior director, security, MP Singh, that some unidentified men clashed with four hostel students and one of the students, Suphac H Kangvantrattana, 20, suffered head injuries who was taken to Parul Sevashram hospital for treatment. 

Rajput has said in absence of any translator the injured student couldn't narrate his ordeal. Kangvantrattana is oringally from Thailand. 

However, he has said, varsity's own inquiry revealed that Kangvantrattana, who is a student of BCA, second year, along with three others students had gone to shrine (dargah) of nearby Limda village, where they were attacked by a group of about ten people.

The locals have claimed that these students  were smoking cigarettes and walking with slippers in the dargah and despite being told repeatedly that it was a religious place, the student didn't budge. 

Alleging that the students were repeatedly disrespecting the site, the mob armed with sticks and bats thrashed the four students. A purported video of the assault has been doing the rounds on social media. 

The other three students have been identified as Odwa Andrew Abbas Andre Watari, 21, a resident of South Sudan, first-year petroleum engineering student, Tange Evenilson Thomal, from Mozambique, first-year petroleum engineering student and Mohammed Alikhalif Khalif Mohammed, a resident of United Kingdom who is first-year cardiology student.

The FIR mentions that being holiday on account of Dhuleti, the students had ventured out of the campus to withdraw money from the ATM from Limbda village, which located close to the campus. They visited the lake in the village and were spotted smoking cigarettes near the dargah when some villagers objected.

The FIR states that the students couldn't understand Gujarati which led to heated arguments which turned into a fight.