Neetu arrives in Mumbai on way to FTII

Two months after she was picked up from the Film and Television Institute of India and packed off to Kathmandu by the Pune...

Two months after she was picked up from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and packed off to Kathmandu by the Pune police,Neetu Singh landed in Mumbai on Sunday.

Confirming this,Kiran Moghe,Maharashtra unit head of All-India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA),said Neetu flew into Mumbai on Sunday and would be reaching FTII either late in the night or early on Monday morning. Moghe,who was at a conference in Bhandup in Mumbai,told The Indian Express that she had spoken to Neetu after she arrived in Mumbai and that she was staying there with a friend in the city.

I have received no information about Neetus arrival in the city, said DCP (special branch) Ravindra Sengaonkar.

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Neetu,it is learnt,is keen to keep her return to the institute quiet and may choose to reach the city late in the night. When the state government had agreed to revoke her deportation orders in mid-January this time minus the many conditions it had initially sought to impose so that she could complete her editing course at FTII,the only condition that was retained was that she should refrain from speaking to the media after her return. Neetu could not be contacted for comments in Mumbai.

Meanwhile,the authorities at FTII too refused to divulge any information or admit to having any knowledge of her return. FTII director Pankaj Rag was out of town and unavailable for comment. Chandrashekhar Joshi,the institute spokesperson,said he had no official word on her return. Gloria Koshy,matron of the girls hostel,too said she had not received any news on Neetu,but admitted that there was a buzz at the institute about her imminent return.

Neetu,a final-year editing student at the FTII,had been deported to Nepal by a secret overnight operation by the Pune police on December 5. AIDWA,that took up her case,had maintained that the move was at the behest of Neetus estranged husband Amresh Singh,a powerful politician in Nepal.

The Indian Express first broke the story on December 30 and following subsequent outrage in the media and society,the government was compelled to revoke the deportation order.