Hyderabad:The Telangana High Court on Friday granted four weeks interim bail to actor Allu Arjun after a court sent him to 14-day judicial custody in connection with the stampede death at Sandhya theatre during the premiere show of ‘Pushpa 2’.
Justice Juvvadi Sridevi said, “I'm inclined to give interim bail, for a limited period as in the ‘Arnab Goswami’ case. What bothers me is just because he is an actor, can he be held like this? There are no ingredients.”
Counsel appearing for the actor, S. Niranjan Reddy, argued that the main ingredient to base a case for culpable homicide is ‘intention’, which is missing in this case. Counsel further contended that even a case of ‘death by negligence’ would be highly unlikely.
He cited the 2017 incident where a similar incident had happened during the promotional tour of ‘Raees’ and a case was filed against its lead actor Shah Rukh Khan. However, the Gujarat High Court ruled that Khan was not criminally liable for the stampede.
Further, counsel contended that the deceased woman was on the ground floor of Sandhya theatre, where the stampede occurred, whereas the actor was on the first floor, further arguing that both Arjun and the film producer had written to the theatre management about the actor’s presence.
Arrest cannot be made without notice. Sometimes tragic incidents happen. There are umpteen cases, where politicians hold rallies and accidents may happen. Hence, I seek interim bail for my client, said counsel.
The public prosecutor said that the actor had ‘knowledge’ which was an ingredient for the offences alleged in the FIR.
When the court asked, "Can his personal liberty be deprived just because he is an actor?", the public prosecutor said that the actor’s presence had triggered the entire incident.
The prosecutor also reminded the court that the eight-year-old son of the deceased, who was injured during the incident, is still on a ventilator.
Even as Niranjan said that interim bail can be granted, the prosecution argued that since the remand has already been filed, the accused cannot simply file a quash plea and get an interim bail. The judge agreed and said that the argument of senior counsel was maintainable.
