The Gujarat HC has declared a date of return for an accused now in Australia in the 2023 Gujarat University missing answer sheets case.
According to the court directive, the accused must return to India by January 6, 2026.
The court said she must appear before the trial court that has already issued summons and a warrant for framing of charges.
Reports have highlighted that the High Court granted continuation of the accused’s anticipatory bail till January 7. The direction was issued through an oral order.
Justice N S Kariel was hearing a petition filed by Binal Patel.
Patel is one of the accused students in the July 2023 case involving around 28 missing BSc nursing answer sheets of Gujarat University.
Patel has been summoned by the Ahmedabad sessions court for the process of framing charges. She had requested the High Court to grant her time till February or March to appear before the trial court.
The HC had observed that the accused could not take the judiciary for granted. The court had asked Patel’s counsel to submit a definite date of her arrival in India.
Patel’s counsel informed the court that she would travel from Australia and reach India on January 6, 2026. The court recorded this submission while passing its oral order.
The HC stated that the anticipatory bail order dated April 29, 2024, and the liberty granted by the sessions court on June 19, 2024, would continue till January 7, 2026. It further stated that if Patel did not return to India on or before January 6, 2025, appropriate proceedings would be initiated against her.
In her plea, Patel reportedly said that she was settled in Australia and required time to process her travel to India. Her counsel informed that the request was made either to exempt her presence at the stage of framing of charges or to allow her to participate virtually.
The lawyer said summons were received two months ago and then a warrant was issued. He said they asked for time till February because airfares were high and it was a difficult period. He said since the court rejected the plea and asked her to come within two weeks, they assured the court she would be in India by January 6.
According to the prosecution, a set of answer sheets of BSc nursing students and some physiotherapy students were allegedly removed from the locker room after the July 10, 2023 examination. The allegation is that the sheets were taken out to allow some students to fill in blank answers in exchange for Rs 50,000 per student.
The prosecution case is based on a complaint lodged by Gujarat University on July 12, 2023. The complaint was filed after student unions highlighted the issue. The answer sheets were later found on the university campus a couple of days after the complaint.
Two former student leaders, Sunny Chaudhary and Amit Singh, and a peon, Sanjay Damor, were identified as the main accused. They were arrested in August 2023 following the investigation.
Patel’s counsel stated that no specific role had been attributed to her in the case. He said she had been granted anticipatory bail since the FIR was lodged at the Gujarat University Police Station and had never been arrested.
He also stated that the sections invoked in the FIR made the case triable by a sessions court. He said the delay in processing the case and committing it to the sessions court resulted in the charges being framed nearly two years after the chargesheet was filed.
Also Read: Gujarat High Court Serves Notice to IIM Ahmedabad over Student’s Admission Row https://www.vibesofindia.com/gujarat-high-court-serves-notice-to-iim-ahmedabad-over-students-admission-row/
