Pune, Aug 19
In a post-midnight swoop, police
arrested five FTII students for rioting, illegal confinement and more
after they 'gheraoed' director Prashant Pathrabe for nearly eight hours.
The arrests triggered an avalanche of criticism, and the students got
bail on Wednesday.
On Wednesday afternoon, the arrested students
were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody till
September 1. Later, their lawyers Asim Sarode and Shrikant Shivade moved
the court and the students got bail on sureties of Rs.3,000 each.
Police
have registered similar cases against at least another dozen students
of the Film and Television Institute of India who have sought
anticipatory bail.
A van load of baton wielding policemen landed
at the picturesque and sprawling FTII campus just after midnight Tuesday
and began looking for the 40 or so students who 'gheraoed' Pathrabe in
his office on Monday.
Five students were nabbed and a hunt launched for the others who were believed to be hiding in and around the campus.
The
students were among those protesting against "irrational and
unjustified" pro-rata course project assessment of the 2008 batch of 49
students and wanted Pathrabe to revoke his decision.
On
Wednesday, a shaken Pathrabe told the media that the students kept him
in illegal confinement for 8-10 hours and vandalized his office, forcing
him to lodge a police complaint.
"I really wonder by what
yardstick you can call such people 'students'. They wanted to enact a
drama. It was all pre-planned to show the institute and the director in
poor light," he said.
A police officer accused the students of
shouting slogans in Pathrabe's office, physically preventing him and
others from leaving, snapping telephone lines and damaging computers.
The
students also formed a human chain to stop Pathrabe from stepping out
and shouted slogans like "PM Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley Murdabad".
Following Pathrabe's late night complaint, police registered a FIR against 15 students.
The
crackdown capped a 72-day-old agitation in which students are opposing
the appointment of BJP member and TV actor Gajendra Chauhan as FTII
chairman.
The arrests evoked denunciation across the country.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi took on Prime Minister Modi, saying the students were not criminals.
"Silence,
Suspend, Arrest: Modi Mantra for Achhe Din," Gandhi tweeted. "On one
hand they destroyed creativity, and on the other hand, made money... Now
this disease is spreading. FTII is a symbol of it," Gandhi said.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also criticised the arrests.
The students alleged that the police action was meant to break their strike.
Commoners to celebs flayed the arrests, with many comparing it to the Emergency days when midnight arrests were common.
While
brakes have been applied on the contentious assessment decision, a
three-member committee from the information and broadcasting ministry
will visit FTII on August 21 after which a final decision will be taken.
The students have shown no signs of being cowed down. They are likely to announce their future plans soon.
Photo: FTII director Prashant Pathrabe addresses a press conference in Pune on Aug 19, 2015. (Photo: IANS)
