Overview
- Violent clashes broke out on September 27 at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute when members of the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat and students fought inside the auditorium, leaving several people injured and at least two hospitalised.
- Police have registered three FIRs linked to the incident — one by the SRFTI dean, one by the ABGP provincial head, and a suo motu FIR by police — and no arrests had been reported in coverage to date.
- A six-member Special Investigation Team led by Kolkata Police Additional Commissioner Kunal Agrawal was constituted on September 30 and given authority to seek extra manpower and submit a first report by October 1.
- Accounts of what happened remain sharply divided: students and SFI-affiliated activists say ABGP members attacked protestors, while ABGP says its members were assaulted and says they had booked the hall; students also accused police of slow or inadequate action and point to video evidence alleging humiliation.
- Filmmakers, actors and authors have publicly condemned the attack, demanded access to CCTV footage and medical records, and pressed for transparent protocols on external bookings and stronger safeguards to keep publicly funded cultural institutions safe for dissent; the clash also underlines West Bengal’s wider political polarisation between RSS-linked groups and student left organisations.