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Late in the night on Tuesday, police gushed into the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) campus at Pune with a list of 17 students on charge for rioting and prohibited assembly. However, four from the list have been taken into custody as some sort of confusion arouse regarding the names of few students and few others were unavailable in the campus at that time. Three girls who are included in the list were also not arrested and additionally ‘30 others’ are mentioned in the FIR.

FTII Students were taken to Deccan Gymkhana police station

The FTII students who were arrested were taken to the Deccan Gymkhana police station, following which a large student group and few members of the faculty arrived to the police station. A police officer explained to the students that the late night swoop was an act that followed instructions.

Complaint by FTII's director

Earlier a complaint was lodged by Prashant Pathrabe, FTII's director, against students as they have encircled him for approximately six hours on Monday. The students have gheraoed the director as he approved to assess the films made by the students of batch 2008, over which both faculty and students have opposed. Thus the complaint has resulted in the arrests of the FTII students.

Cops have charged the students under sections 147 (rioting), 143, 149 (unlawful assembly), 353 (obstructing public servant from discharging duty), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC.

-Sumana