Another row brews at FTII

PUNE, MARCH 18: The 20 students of the Film and Television Institute of India, aginst whom chargesheets were filed on Monday before the cour...

PUNE, MARCH 18: The 20 students of the Film and Television Institute of India, aginst whom chargesheets were filed on Monday before the court of Judicial Magistrate A R Soni, are indignant about the complaint regarding threat to life 8212; Section 506 8212; a punishable offence under the Indian Penal Code that has been registered against them.

8220;No threat to life was made in our agitation, it was a peaceful satyagrah,8221; says Shammi Nanda, former Students8217; Union president, who is among the charge-sheeted. In fact, Nanda insists that even the complaint filed by director Mohan Agashe on the basis of which police action was taken, no where mentions threat to life.

8220;Agahse has given a statement in Marathi saying he had to call the police with a heavy heart but it does not mention threat to life,8221; he says. The complaint had been filed against four students Kavita Pai, Satyajit Pande, Bindu Nair and Shrinivas Chandra who had been named and 16 others, who had not been named. Charge-sheets have been filed againstall 20 students who were arrested. The students did not appear to be upset, they expressed confidence that the offence registered under Section 506 would be withdrawn.

In fact, advocate Alankar Kelkar, who appeared on behalf of the students, filed an application for expediting the case as they were from different states and had almost finished their courses at FTII.

While Agashe, who is in Delhi till March 19, could not be contacted, Dean, Film, Mehboob Khan washed his hands off the entire episode by saying, 8220;I have nothing to say, the complaint was made by the director on behalf of the institute and only he can make a comment.8221; Khan also specified he would be unable to state if Agashe would be willing to take back the complaints.

The students were arrested following their dharna at the venue of the Governing Council meeting on February 8 at the FTII conference room. According to the charge-sheet, the meeting concluded at 5 pm when students blocked the passage and forced authorities to disclose theirdecision. Students blocked the passage and shouted 8220;shame, shame.8221; According to the charge-sheet, since the situation got out of control, Agashe called the police and all the students were arrested by sub-inspector R C Pisal and his team from the Deccan Gymkhana police station. The students were released the next day on a surety of Rs 500.