PUNE: Some students of the Film and Television Institute of India on Friday night demonstrated outside the institution’s campus gate on Law College Road after one of their peers was evicted from the hostel over alleged misconduct.According to the students, security personnel evicted Srinivas Rao, a 2016- batch art direction student, around 9pm as part of an inquiry panel order issued on February 6. Calls and texts to FTII director Bhupendra Kainthola were unanswered till late on Friday.The panel probed allegations of misbehaviour against Srinivas and Manoj Kumar Verma, another art direction student. They allegedly verbally abused a faculty member on December 19.Verma was reported missing from the institute, but was later found in his hometown in Uttar Pradesh.The students claimed that the alleged misconduct complaint was the fallout of a communication gap between the students and the faculty member as Srinivas was not proficient in Hindi.“Both Srinivas and Manoj were suspended from academic activities since December 21, but they were allowed to stay in the hostel, pending an inquiry. We tried to redress with the faculty, but they did not listen,” said a member of the FTII Students’ Association (FSA).The inquiry committed was constituted on January 17. It submitted its report at the end of January and the eviction order was passed on February 6. “We received a copy of the report only on February 12. We tried to reverse the order because Srinivas is from a poor background and cannot afford any nearby place to stay. But the management did not listen to us,” the FSA member added.

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