NEW DELHI: Telangana Police on Friday explicitly blamed actor Allu Arjun‘s “gesture” for the crowd getting out of control and leading to a stampede in Hyderabad’s Sandhya Theatre during the premiere of Pushpa 2 that resulted in the death of a woman and serious injuries to her son.
The stampede, which occurred on December 4, claimed the life of Revathi and critically injured her 13-year-old son, Shreethej, after a massive crowd gathered at Sandhya Theatre in Hyderabad.
Facing backlash for the actor’s arrest, who was granted interim bail by the Telangana high court, the state police issued a release in which it dismissed allegations there weren’t sufficient arrangements in place to manage the large crowd that had gathered.
The Telangana police said that organisers, unlike what usually happens before any mega event, “did not meet any officer and simply submitted the letter in the inward section”.
The administration said when a heavy crowd is expected the organisers “personally visit the police station/ ACP/ DCP office” to seek the proper arrangement, which was not the case with Allu Arjun’s event.
“We receive a lot of requests for bandobust (arrangement) citing visits by some political personalities, film celebrities, religious programs etc., However, it is beyond our resources to provide bandobust for every event. In specific cases where heavy crowd is expected or some popular personality is visiting, the organizer personally visits the police station / ACP / DCP office and brief about the program depending upon which we provide the bandobust. In this case, the organiser did not meet any officer and simply submitted the letter in the inward section. No details were made available to the police despite this we arranged suitable bandobust for crowd management outside the theatre, ” deputy commissioner of police, Central Zone, Hyderabad City said while clarifying on the letter being circulating in media addressed by Sandhya Cine Enterprise 70 MM to ACP Chikkadpally requesting bandobust on 04/05-12-2024 in connection with the release of Pushpa-2.
The police said that the “crowd was well in control” before the Pushpa 2 actor “came out from the sun roof of his vehicle and started waving to the public gathered”.
“This gesture attracted a lot of public towards the theatre main gate. At the same time his private security started pushing people to make way for his vehicle. His team was intimated to take him back citing large public gathering but they didn’t act on it and Allu Arjun was there inside the theatre for more than two hours. Therefore, it is clear that adequate police bandobust was in place, it was his actions which led to this unfortunate incident,” the Telangana police said.
The police also refuted that they misbehaved with the actor and claimed they gave “enough time to to Allu Arjun to “interact with his family and wife” before he himself came out and entered the police vehicle.
“Another issue that the police personnel misbehaved with Allu Arjun at the time of arrest is also not true. When police reached his residence, he requested some time to change his clothes. He went inside his bedroom, police personnel waited outside and took him into custody when he came out,” deputy commissioner of police, Central Zone, Hyderabad City added.