Senior Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Prakash Ambedkar was arrested on Friday after he and his activists tried to forcibly take over the management of Siddharth College in the Fort area of south Mumbai. According to Siddharth College principal Dr Krishna Patil, Mr Ambedkar and other activists were stopped by the Azad Maidan police from entering the college, and the situation turned violent, where the protesters beat up police officers. Eight policemen and at least 10 protesters were injured.
The Azad Maidan police arrested a total of 35 men and 16 women in the incident, all of whom were booked and later granted bail. The police imposed strict bandobast around the college in order to avoid any more untoward incidents.
Mr Ambedkar remained unavailable for comment.
According to Dr Patil, the incident has its roots in the dismissal of two members of the governing body — Dr M.S. Moray and Dr S.P. Gaikwad — two years ago. The People’s Education Society had dismissed the duo for allegedly committing fraud to the tune of `56 lakh and `15 crore respectively.
Dr Patil, the assistant secretary of the governing body, said, “Dr Moray’s fraud came to light in an audit report after which he was issued a showcause notice. No police complaint was filed then, but his reply to the notice was unsatisfactory. Both men were removed in January 2010.” He added that Dr Moray had been illegally collecting money from principals of various colleges under PES and had also misappropriated the `56 lakh sanctioned for infrastructural development of Dr Ambedkar BEd College at Gaya, Bihar in 2009-10.
However, despite this, the two men continued to function as governing body members, claiming they were the only legal members.
In their defence, Dr Moray and Dr Gaikwad refuted the allegations and claimed that all the other members were illegal as their names were not listed with the charity commissioner. Dr Gaikwad had said, “Only three names are listed with the charity commissioner — Dr Moray, I and K.H. Ranganath, who is currently the chairman of the governing body. However, Dr Ranganath and his supporters accused us of committing fraud.”