1 week Ago By TG Naidu
HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court, hearing a quash petition, on Friday granted actor Allu Arjun interim bail for four weeks, hours after he was arrested in connection with the death of a woman at the Sandhya Theatre during the premiere of his movie Pushpa-2 on December 4. However, Arjun would have to spend the night in Chanchalguda jail as the jail authorities did not receive the copy of the high court order till 10.30 pm.
By the time the order copy was finally uploaded online, Arjun’s advocates handed over a hard copy to the jail authorities. Director General (Prisons) Soumya Mishra verified the physical copy of the HC order, as the Chanchalguda jail superintendent is on leave. However, the jail authorities found that there were mistakes in the order copy.
Arjun will be released on Saturday once the rectified order copy was submitted to the jail authorities. Also, the surety amount of Rs 50,000 was not submitted on Friday. M Revathi was crushed to death when the crowd at the theatre surged forward towards Arjun, while her 8-year-old son sustained critical injuries.
As part of the bail conditions, Justice Juvvadi Sridevi directed Arjun to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and to refrain from influencing witnesses. The actor was also instructed to file a fresh petition for regular bail in the trial court. The next hearing is scheduled for December 21, 2024.
The police, acting on the complaint lodged by Revathi’s husband alleging negligence on part of the event organisers and Arjun, arrested the actor from his Jubilee Hills residence in the afternoon. He was then taken to Gandhi Hospital for medical checks before being produced before the Nampally court. The Nampally court then sent him to 14 days remand.
Fortunately for Arjun, the high court’s order granting him interim relief came almost at the same time as the Nampally court’s order. Hearing the petition filed on Arjun’s behalf, Justice Sridevi ruled that the Sections the actor was booked under — 105(B) and 118(1) read with 3(5) of the BNS — included culpable homicide and voluntarily causing grievous hurt, were not applicable in this case. The judge noted that Arjun could not be prima facie held responsible for the stampede, as he had attended the event after obtaining the requisite permissions.
She also made it clear that Arjun’s fundamental right to life and liberty could not be overlooked. “As a citizen of this earth, he too has the right to life and liberty,” Justice Sridevi remarked, while sympathising with the victim’s family but maintaining that imposing serious charges without clear evidence of intent was unjust. Dismissing the prosecution’s argument that Arjun had foreknowledge of the potential risks, the court stated, “What is this? He’s a cinema actor.
He took permission and he went.” Senior counsel Niranjan Reddy, representing Arjun, argued that the allegations lacked evidence of criminal intent. He highlighted that Arjun was on the first floor of the Sandhya theatre while the stampede occurred on the ground floor.
Meanwhile, Arjun was brought to the Chanchalguda jail at 6 pm. However, he was not released from jail when reports last came in as the jail authorities had not received the copy of the HC order. This left his fans waiting outside even more anxious.
According to jail officials, Arjun has been lodged in the Manjeera barrack. To his credit, Arjun appeared relaxed at the PS and at the jail throughout. It may be recalled that Arjun had filed a petition in the HC on December 11 seeking stay on all proceedings, including his arrest, in connection with FIR No 376 registered by the Chikkadpally police following the death of 39-year-old M Revathi during the screening of the premiere show of ‘Pushpa-2: The Rule’.
The petition said that the allegations against the actor lack factual basis and were designed to misuse the judicial process, thereby warranting intervention by the HC under Section 528 of BNSS being verbatim reproduction of Section 482 of CrPC. Sandhya theatre management too approached the court to stay the proceedings of the FIR and claimed that they had sought additional security from Chikkadapally police on the day of premiere show. However, a day after the stampede Allu Arjun expressed sorrow over Revathi’s death and announced that he would pay Rs 25 lakh compensation to her family.
‘Pushpa-2: The rule’, which was released on December 5 across the globe, collected around Rs 1,100 crore in the first eight days. Veteran actor and Allu Arjun’s paternal uncle K Chiranjeevi, accompanied by his wife, rushed to the residence of Arjun and consoled the family members. Actor Nagababu too rushed to the actor’s residence.
Andhra Pradesh Deputy CMPawan Kalyan too rushed from Vijayawada to Hyderabad to express solidarity with Arjun’s family..
