Liquor bottles and suspected narcotics were recovered during a police raid at a boys’ hostel of Vadodara’s Maharaja Sayajirao (MS) University, once again putting the campus in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
Acting on information that liquor parties were allegedly being held in hostel rooms for a long period, the Sayajiganj police conducted a surprise search at the MM Hall hostel. During the raid, police seized 25 to 30 empty liquor bottles, one full bottle of foreign liquor, several empty cigarette packets, and substances suspected to be narcotics.
The recovery has raised questions about how such items entered the hostel despite the university’s claims of strict campus security. Following the raid, the role of the hostel warden and security staff has come under scrutiny.
University authorities reportedly ordered an internal inquiry after the incident. The chief hostel warden confirmed that empty liquor bottles were found in a room and said a committee has been constituted to probe how the items were brought into the hostel.
Meanwhile, a science faculty student staying in the room from where the bottles were recovered claimed that the empty bottles were brought for a project. The student also said that the MM Hall warden had carried out a routine inspection a day earlier and that no liquor party was taking place at the time.
The incident comes close on the heels of a similar case at Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, where more than 100 empty high-end liquor bottles were reportedly found on the rooftop of a hostel block on January 28.