Two members of the cultural group Kabir Kala Manch (KKM) and two students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) were injured on Wednesday night after being beaten upallegedly by members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) outside the NationalFilm Archive of India (NFAI) here in the city.
The FTII students' body and social group Yugpath had organized the screening of noted documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan's Jai Bhim Comrade at the NFAI followed by a musical programme by KKM. The film screening was organised as a tribute to slain anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabholkar.
All four injured have been admitted to Joshi Hospital. One of them suffered a head injury.
Some FTII students registered a complaint at the Prabhat police chowky that a group of 15 ABVP members attacked them and the KKM members around 8.30 pm after the programme.
"We are going to register a case of rioting against ABVP members," senior inspector Manohar Joshi of the Deccan Gymkhana police station told TOI.
Close to 150 people, including Patwardhan, attended the screening at the NFAI. An FTII student, who was also attacked, said, "When we came out of the auditorium, the ABVP members started creating a ruckus. They shouted slogans against the film and KKM. The security guard of the NFAI asked them to leave and closed the institute's gate. However, when we came out of the NFAI premises, they attacked us with helmets and sticks. Even before we could react, they fled from the scene."
However, ABVP city organizing secretary Ray Singh said they had visited the venue only to find out what the programme was about. He alleged that on the contrary, they were beaten up by the organisers. "Though we were not invited, we wanted to see what the programme was about. When we tried to reason with the organisers, they got aggressive and a fight ensued," he told TOI.
FTII director D J Narain said the attack took place outside the NFAI. "A programme organised by the students' association was going on when some people came from outside and attacked our students. They were objecting to the screening of Patwardhan's film," he said.