Police enter SRFTI campus amid row over security and student protest

Kolkata Police entered the SRFTI campus late Tuesday after students held a torch rally demanding better security. The administration alleged intimidation, while the students' union questioned the late-night deployment and raised concerns about police identification badges

Kolkata: Police entered the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) campus late on Tuesday night after students protesting over security concerns took out a torch rally, demanding enhanced security on the premises following confrontations involving right-wing groups.

Confirming the police entry, SRFTI authorities said nearly 50 students took out a torch march without prior intimation or permission, moving through different parts of the campus, including residential areas near the guest house.

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The students, carrying torches and shouting intimidating slogans, created an atmosphere of fear and anxiety for nearly an hour, an institute official said on Wednesday.

Some police personnel were still present on the campus on Wednesday morning, an institute employee claimed.

In a statement, Vice-Chancellor Santosh Ajmera said the protest could not be considered peaceful, alleging that outsiders had joined the students and that they were attempting to take control of the institution.

“This can’t be called a peaceful protest, whereby students are joined by others. They can’t just take the law into their hands and try to hijack the entire institution,” he said.

The incident had the potential to cause major damage to institutional property and endanger lives on the campus, Ajmera said.

He alleged that incidents of verbal abuse, intimidation, vandalism at the VC’s office and other premises, and physical abuse of the VC had occurred a few days earlier, following which six students were rusticated.

“They are roaming freely on the campus, defying all orders. Some of them are instigating others and trying to turn the protest into a nationwide agitation, apparently with a clear political agenda in mind,” he said.

Ajmera said the decision to call the police onto the campus was taken to safeguard the institution and ensure the safety and well-being of everyone living there.

“As the protest is heading in a very wrong direction, it was felt necessary and urgent to call the police inside the campus,” he said.

The students’ union, however, alleged that 10-15 police personnel entered the campus around 11.30 pm and went near the guest house where the vice-chancellor resides.

The union said its peaceful march within the campus and around the main gate had concluded around 6.30 pm, and questioned the administration’s decision to deploy police personnel several hours later.

Four student representatives subsequently approached the vice-chancellor seeking a discussion and written clarification on the deployment, but he refused to engage with them, the union alleged.

It also claimed that most of the police personnel deployed on the campus were not wearing identification badges, raising concerns over transparency and accountability.

Responding to the vice-chancellor’s claim that he felt intimidated by the torch march, the union said it had ensured that the area around the guest house remained clear of students and offered to share videos and photographs to support its claim.

Classes at SRFTI have remained suspended since September 28 following a clash with an RSS-linked organisation on September 27.

Tensions escalated on October 4 when members of the RSS-linked Bangiyo Hindu Jagaran Manch marched towards the institute’s main gate, during which bottles and bricks were allegedly hurled.

Students have been staging an indefinite sit-in outside the vice-chancellor’s office since October 12. They also refused to vacate their hostels after the institute administration asked them to do so on October 16.