Panel formed by Pune varsity to submit report on Lalit Kala Kendra incident by month end
In the said incident related to the staging of the play, the Pune police filed an FIR and arrested the head of department of the Lalit Kala Kendra and a few other students
The next meeting of the fact-finding committee constituted by the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) administration to investigate the incident related to the staging of a play based on the ‘Ram Leela’ on February 2 at the Lalit Kala Kendra is on April 19, and the committee will most likely submit its final report by the end of April.

In the said incident related to the staging of the play, the Pune police filed an FIR and arrested the head of department of the Lalit Kala Kendra and a few other students. Thereafter, the SPPU administration formed the committee to probe the incident. University officials said that the fact-finding committee is headed by retired district judge Shri Krishna Panse and actor Praveen Tarde, and comprises principal professor Devidas Waydande; SPPU senate members Vinayak Ambekar and Dr Jyoti Bhakere; principal Kranti Deshmukh; and university in-charge registrar Vijay Khare as members.
A committee member on condition of anonymity said, “I cannot reveal much about the details of the report to be submitted soon, as it is part of protocol. But yes, we are in the final stage of submitting the report to the university about the entire incident that occurred.”
“We called all the stakeholders involved in the incident and conducted their inquiry, one by one, and took all their statements. We then called drama experts from outside and placed all the facts in front of them and asked them for their opinion,” the committee member said.
“In this process, we called the head of the department, some professors, students and even the representatives of the organisations that complained about the drama. There was open access to everything as it is a public university, and everyone has a right to ask questions,” the committee member said.
Interestingly, the students who played various characters (mostly Gods) in the play, denied all allegations and blamed the script instead. The committee member said, “We called all the students who played different characters in the play, and each one of them said that they only acted out what was there in the script. Now there is an inquiry related to the script as to who selected it, who monitored the play and so on…”
The report is expected to be submitted by the end of this month after which the SPPU administration, management council and senate will take action as per the conclusion/recommendations.
