The Hyderabad Police on Thursday filed a case against actor Allu Arjun, his security team and the management of the Sandhya Theatre after a woman died in a stampede at the premiere of his film Pushpa 2, The Indian Express reported.
The incident took place on Wednesday evening.
Akshansh Yadav, the deputy commissioner of police of central zone, told the newspaper that a case had been filed based on a complaint by the 39-year-old woman’s family members.
The case has been filed for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt, under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, The Hindu reported.
Yadav said that the matter was being investigated. “Stringent action as per law will be taken against all the persons responsible for the chaotic situation inside the theatre leading to the death of a person and injury to others,” he was quoted as saying.
The woman’s nine-year-old son is in hospital and is critical, according to The Indian Express.
Yadav said that the theatre where the film premiere took place had failed to inform the police that the lead actor and other cast members were going to come there.
B Raju Naik, the station house officer of the Chikkadpally police station, was quoted as saying that a huge crowd had gathered outside the theatre to watch the film and see the lead actors.
“However, there was no intimation to police from the side of theatre management or the actors’ team about what time they would visit,” Naik said. “The theatre management did not make any additional provisions regarding security to manage the crowd. There was no separate entry or exit for the actors’ team though the theatre management had information about their arrival.”
The police said that when Arjun came to the theatre, his personal security team and the crowd tried to enter the premises with him.
“His personal security team started pushing the public, which further aggravated the situation as there was already a huge gathering,” The Indian Express quoted Naik as saying. “Taking advantage of this situation, along with the actor and his security team, a large number of people entered the lower balcony area.”
The woman and her son felt suffocated as a result of a large number of people coming into the venue, he said, adding that the police personnel pulled them out of the public from the lower balcony area.
“They performed CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] on her son and immediately shifted them to the nearby Durgabai Deshmukh Hospital,” he said. “The doctors informed that she was dead and her son was advised to be shifted to another hospital for better treatment.”
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