The Pune Police has arrested 5 students, including 3 girls, after students gheraoed the FTII Director Prashant Pathrabe on Monday to demand a hold on their assessments in the light of protests that have been on at the film institute since the past 68 days.
After Pathrabe’s complaint, an FIR was registered against 30 students.
The arrests were made post midnight. As the news broke, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal offered his help to the FTII students.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi took the opportunity to hit out at the Modi government.
Students have been protesting against BJP leader Gajendra Chauhan’s appointment as FTII chairman, saying he had neither credentials nor academic excellence to head the institution.
The Quint spoke to a few students in FTII who said that they were forced to make a move like the gherao as the standard procedure of assessment was not followed.
The students added that all faculty members had been ordered to hold the assessment, and a decision in said regard was to be made on Tuesday morning.
The Director himself was absent when the students were arrested. A female police officer or hostel care takers were nowhere to be seen.
However, Direction Head of Department (HoD), Sandeep Chatterjee, Sound HoD Mateen Ahmed and a few other faculty members are with the students.
By law, no woman is allowed to be arrested after sunset or before sunrise save ‘exceptional circumstances’.
Senior journalists Shekhar Gupta and Barkha Dutt tweeted their shock at the nature of the arrests,
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)