Hyderabad: Police arrested three persons in connection with the stampede that occurred during a show of ‘Pushpa-2’ at Sandhya 70 mm movie theatre in which 30-year-old M. Ravathi died and her nine-year-old son Sri Tej fell unconscious due to suffocation and went into hypoxia with potential lung injury.
During the investigation the Chikkadpally police arrested three persons identified as M. Sandeep, a partner of Sandhya 70 mm, M. Nagaraju, theatre manager, and Gandhakam Vijay Chander, lower balcony incharge at the theatre.
It is reported that seven other accused from Sandhya theatre are absconding and three special teams from central zone are making efforts to arrest them.
The police booked the accused for culpable homicide and voluntarily causing hurt and grievous injuries has been booked under section 105,118(1) read with 3(5) of the BNS Act and produced them before the court, which remanded to the Chanchalguda central prison.
The incident occurred on December 4 at around 9.40 pm at Sandhya theatre at RTC crossroads when a huge crowd had gathered to watch the movie as well as its actors, who were expected to come to the theatre, central zone DCP Akshansh Yadav said while briefing the media.
“We were not informed about the premiere show either by the theatre management or the actors team that they would be visiting the theatre,” Akshansh Yadav said.
The theatre management failed to make any additional provisions regarding security to manage the crowd nor was there any separate entry or exit for the actors despite the theatre management having information about the arrival of lead actor Allu Arjun, a police officer said.
After Allu Arjun reached Sandhya theatre with his personal security, people who gathered there, tried to enter the theatre with him, said Chikkadpally ACP L. Ramesh Kumar.
A special team has been formed for further investigation and the police is seeking opinion from legal experts on investigating Allu Arjun and his team about the incident as per law. So far no notice has been served to the actor, as the investigation is still under progress, a senior police officer told Deccan Chronicle.
Going by the CCTV camera footage and the statements of eyewitnesses, we found that the situation got aggravated after Allu Arjun’s personal security team started pushing the public, Ramesh Kumar said.
A large number of people entered inside the lower balcony area of the theatre where victim Revathi and her son Sri Tej felt suffocated due to large public influx. Police, who were on duty, immediately pulled them out of the public and performed CPR to her son, the ACP said.
“Our police staff immediately shifted Revathi to a nearby hospital. However, doctors declared Revathi dead. Her son Sri Tej is undergoing treatment in a super speciality hospital,” the ACP said.
