Published On : Thu, Jan 7th, 2016

FTII students manhandled by police, detained

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FTII studentsPune/Nagpur: Students of the Film and Television Institute of India were manhandled by the police and detained on Thursday morning. The students were protesting against FTII chairman Gajendra Chauhan and the Assembly Council meeting scheduled for morning.

Even though the students were protesting peacefully, police officials detained around 40 of them, taking them to Deccan Gymkhana Police station.

“The students were asked to protest along the road but they blocked it. We asked them to sit inside the police van. It is when they resisted that the police had to use force,” said DCP Tushar Joshi.

Protests by the students began when the staff association called a Dhol Tasha band to welcome the new chairperson Gajendra Chauhan with the sound of drums. “While our students were manhandled and hit in their own institution, the staff association was letting the dhol tasha play for the chairperson. We were peaceful but force was used against us. This will not be tolerated,” said Rakesh Shukla, student conveyor of FTII.

Reema Kaur, another student said, “It is a pity that under the pretext of maintaining law and order students are being detained.”

Other students sat within the institution’s premises wearing black bands to continue their protest. Gajendra Chauhan visited the institution along with Pahlaj Nihalani, Rahul Solapurkar and Anagha Ghasyat and attended a meeting.