SRFTI DISSOLVES SEXUAL HARASSMENT COMMITTEE IN A SHOCKING HURRIED MOVE

11^th March 2017, Kolkata

The matter has become clear now. We now know why we, sexual harassment complainants, mostly Sreecheta Das and i have been facing a new wave of violence and harassment from the institute of late.

In the Governing Council meeting yesterday it was decided that Putul Mahmood will be removed from the position of Chairperson of ICC [Internal Complaints Committee for Sexual Harassment]. This decision has been made in the most dubious way possible. It is not even legal. ICCs are declared valid or invalid by courts and not by allegations made by professors who have a history with sexual harassment complainants. This is a very serious issue and needs to be addressed as soon as possible because it is impossible for us to see it removed from the context of two recent incidents, Sreecheta being subjected to an enquiry on the grounds that she vilified a professor and me being threatened that my diploma work shall be stalled. It should also be noted that this decision has been taken while

a)      Ms Sreecheta Das has a sexual harassment complaint of which the preliminary report has been submitted already by the committee chaired by Putul Mahmood.
b)   A court case is being fought by two professors found guilty of sexual harassment against the ICC and the institute. This is to say that while we girls are also party to that case and are fighting it, one fine day SRFTI has decided that it shall bypass the court of law. 

 c)   An ICC is constituted for a period not less than three years and that means that its tenure is till April 2018. This is not about the people involved. It is about the irregularity of the affair and the context and setting against which it is being done. 

 d)   SRFTI does not have a Chairperson now and yesterday's GC meeting was presided by actress Amala Akkineneni. We have reasons to believe that outsiders like her who was present in the meeting were grossly misinformed or duped into taking this decision. Minutes of the meeting are not available to us majorly because most of the time they are not written and secondly because nobody gives us anything.

Such irregularities have been happening for a long time, even ones involving lots and lots of money and sexual harassment issue brought this institute under the glare of media. We also believe that this move has been made also by those who have been questioned repeatedly by audit and CAG reports. We urge our filmmaker friends and others who have stood with us in this battle to support us by doing whatever you can to help us get justice and lead a peaceful life in SRFTI. Frankly, all of us are tired of fighting the institute. We need urgent help with the following:

a)      Getting the news and other details out in media. [SRFTI is an important source of money for many of the newspapers here and of late we have seen tendencies which tell us that media has been made to shut up with money in matters related to SRFTI]

b)      We had written to Minister M Venkaiah Naidu expressing our apprehension with respect to the appointment of the new Director of SRFTI. What we had suspected would happen has just happened. If there is anybody who can help us get in touch with the minister to follow up on this, please help us.

We will fight sexual harassment. Don't try to weaken us, destroy us, break us or kill us. We will fight.