Pune: FTII student goes missing after tiff with professor

The FTII campus

A second-year student of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), who was suspended, has been missing for the past four days. This has prompted FTII to register a case of missing persons with the Pune police. The Deccan Gymkhana police station has registered a complaint and is now probing it.

The missing student has been identified as Manoj Kumar, a resident of Varanasi. He was studying art direction and was in the second year, and had got married six months ago. The student had been suspended after he was scolded by a professor on campus. Senior inspector Bhaskar Jadhav of Deccan Gymkhana police station said, "Kumar's wife has approached us and accordingly, we have registered a missing complaint."

On December 19, Amit Tyagi, the Dean of Films issued a letter to Kumar, on an incident where he allegedly misbehaved with associate professor Vikram Verma, who was also the head of the design department. He was asked to apologise for his misbehaviour by December 24, 2018.

Manoj Kumar

When contacted, Bhupendra Kainthola of FTII, said, "We have lodged a missing complaint and also have urged for a police inquiry. We are hopeful that he will return to campus."
When asked about the incident that led to his suspension, Kainthola said, "I am not aware about who misbehaved with whom. But it was the professor, Vikram Verma, who had complained that Kumar and another student had misbehaved with him. Based on his written complaint, we had suspended them and an inquiry had been initiated."

Aadhith B Sakhvin, the president of the Student Association FTII, spoke to mid-day, "Fifteen days ago, he was suspended by authorities without any prior internal inquiry. As per usual practice, the student's view would be taken into consideration and accordingly, the decision would be taken. But in this case, there was a certain prejudice. We want to know the reason for suspension and issue. Post suspension, he was depressed and was last seen on campus on January 13. Now, his phone is switched off. Later, when he went missing, his wife called few classmates."

He added, "We asked the college authorities to approach the police but they delayed it. Later, the police took cognisance of our grievances. It's on Friday that the police came to campus for questioning. The students feel that he has been falsely implicated. In the letter of suspension too, he has been asked for an unconditional apology, and the reason for that is unclear."

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