FTII Students Booked: Ensure Fair Probe, Safety of Students on Campus: Filmmakers Write to Pune Police

A prominent group of renowned filmmakers, authors and civil society groups made representations to the police and FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) Pune administration with regard to the violence that occurred on the campus on January 23. Unwarranted and targeted the attack was from a bunch of ideologically fired goons “objecting” to the viewing of Anand Patwardhan’s epic documentary, Ram Ke Naam. In the communication, they expressed concern about student’s safety and requested unbiased and prompt investigation.

On January 23, some unidentified persons entered the premises of the film institute, burned a poster mentioning the Babri Masjid, completely vandalised student exhibits and and even brutally attacked some students.

National Award winning filmmaker and FTII alumnus Sunil Sukthankar, veteran theatre artist Sushama Deshpande, photographer and artist Sandesh Bhandare, author and member of PUCL Milind Champarnekar were part of the delegation that submitted a letter to the FTII administration on February 1, yesterday.

The letter addressed to the director of the institute stated — “We feel that FTII should consider the circumstances sensitively and do more to ensure safety and security of students. Instead of taking any coercive action, students should be treated sympathetically, and their right to freedom of expression within the premises should be ensured and protected.”

This delegation also consisted of representatives of civil society groups like PUCL (People’s Union for Civil liberties), NAPM (National Alliance for People’s Movements), Samajwadi Mahila Sabha, NSA (New Socialist Alternative) and student groups like Yuvak Kranti Dal, National Students Union of India (NSUI) and others.

All these groups along with Pune filmmaker and FTII alumnus Umesh Kulkarni and others submitted a letter to the DCP–Special Branch on January 31 requesting unbiased proceedings.

The letter also addressed to the Commissioner of Police stated — “While the latter case (against FTII students) is being pursued vigorously with serious non-bailable offences slapped on them, not much is being done in the complaint registered by FTII (against the attackers), in which relatively lesser offences have been registered.”

Since the incident, police have been deployed on the campus, and disciplinary proceedings initiated by the administration and classes were boycotted by students. This was followed by an FIR lodged by the college against unidentified persons and another by an individual against some students of the college.

In a subsequent press release, these groups stated that their request for a peaceful demonstration intended to be held on January 31 against the FTII incident was shot down by police. The organisations have postponed the demonstration programme but negotiations are underway for police permission, a source said. They also drew attention to the inaction against perpetrators of violence against students in Savitribai Phule Pune University on November 1 and 3.