GNLU registrar allegedly goes undercover to discover drugs

GNLU Gandhinagar’s administration allegedly accessed the private phone records of several students of the law school, after it suspected them of possessing marijuana on campus.

According to the accounts of several GNLU students not directly involved in the episode, one faculty member had discovered an unclaimed packet of marijuana in one of the classrooms around 3 weeks ago.

Following this discovery, GNLU registrar Thomas Mathew searched multiple rooms in the campus hostels and allegedly eventually seized a quantity of marijuana.

Students said that in his search of the hostels, Mathew confiscated the mobile phones of at least two students, accessing WhatsApp conversation threads, and impersonating the owner of one phone to message a WhatsApp group, in order to uncover evidence of marijuana possession.

Since Tuesday, we have sent Mathew several messages reiterating the above allegations and have put in several calls for comment by phone. He confirmed receipt of the messages, but ignored all phonecalls.

GNLU’s track record on respecting students' and staff's basic rights in the guise of enforcing discipline and security, as well as on transparency, has been abysmal, with the Gujarat high court having already officially declared the law school as a human rights violating oligarchy in 2016.

Since then, circumstances at the law school don't seem to have changed much in this respect, with complaints of unfairness and arbitrary action often coming up.