The protests took a violent turn in Mumbai and Nagpur, with some students damaging private and police vehicles by pelting stones and blocking roads. (File) A DAY after a large number of students across various cities in the state, including Mumbai, held protests, demanding the cancellation of offline board exams for Class 10 and 12 in view of the Covid pandemic, the Mumbai Police arrested a man on Tuesday for allegedly instigating the students.
Police arrested Vikas Fhatak, 41, and his aide Ikrar Khan for orchestrating the protest in Dharavi where over a 1,000 students, mostly minors, blocked the roads and some of them took to violence, damaging vehicles, including police vehicles, and were lathi-charged by police.
Fhatak was produced before a magistrate court in Bandra and remanded to police custody along with Khan till February 4.
Speaking on behalf of Dharavi police, public prosecutor Prasad Joshi argued before the court, “The accused is a habitual offender. He had held a protest on the similar issue in Shivaji park. In this case too, he made a video on Instagram and asked students to come to Dharavi. He was arrested from a luxurious hotel where he was staying in a room booked under someone else’s name. Also, it is not possible that over 800 students came on their own. We want to find out who paid for his hotel stay as we suspect some organisation is behind sending the students.”
Fhatak, who had a lawyer and was seated at the back, expressed his wish to speak.
Magistrate Komalsingh Rajput allowed him to speak at which, Fhatak said, “I made the video and gave a call to students to come to protest but some miscreants committed violence. There is no student involved. They caught one man with me (Ikrar Khan) but he is not a student. No organisation or political party is behind me. I am ready to undergo any punishment you give if it is proven that i am associated with a group.” Fhatak’s lawyer said,”My client issues an unconditional apology. He is also ready to bear all the expenses for the damaged caused in the incident. We request for a short custody.”
Fhatak is a social media influencer who goes by the name ‘Hindustani Bhau’ and makes videos on social media platforms. His accounts have been suspended for uploading hateful and obscene content.
An FIR has been registered against Fhatak and several others under different sections of IPC.
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