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Activists of the BJP’s youth wing have been booked for allegedly defacing and ransacking the premises of Lalit Kala Kendra at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) following a controversy over a play on Sita and Lord Ram that was staged by students on the campus.
Jagannath Kharmate, a security guard at SSPU, is the complainant in the FIR registered at the Chaturshringi police station on Saturday evening. The police have booked Nikhil Rajendra Shilimkar (34), Shivam Maruti Balwadkar (24), Kiran Chandrakant Shinde (34), Sunny Ramesh Memane (32), Pratik Kunjir (29), Dayanand Shinde (26) and a few more activists of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal trespass, unlawful assembly and rioting, among others.
The controversial play, based on the backstage chatter of actors who perform various roles in Ramleela, was performed by students of Lalit Kala Kendra, officially called the Centre for Performing Arts, on Friday night.
BJYM activists defaced the signboard of the Centre for Performing Arts with ink. They also allegedly broke a window and the centre’s notice board and damaged pots at the spot around 4.45 pm on Saturday.
Activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the RSS student wing, obstructed the performance after the actors playing the roles of Lord Ram and Sita delivered “objectionable and abusive” dialogues. A male actor performing the role of Sita was allegedly seen smoking during the play. A video of the play recorded by ABVP activists went viral on social media.
Meanwhile, based on an FIR filed by an ABVP leader, the police arrested six people including the Lalit Kala Kendra head and professor of theatre arts, Dr Pravin Dattatraya Bhole, and students Bhavesh Rajendra Patil, Jay Pedanekar, Prathamesh Savant, Hrushikesh Dalvi and Yash Chikhale on Saturday for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
Patil wrote and directed the play while the other students were the actors. The arrested people were released after a court granted them bail.
Police personnel were deployed in the area following the incident.
