The Telangana High Court on Friday granted actor Allu Arjun a four-week interim bail, hours after he was arrested by the Hyderabad Police in connection with the death of a woman in a stampede at the premiere of his film Pushpa 2 at Sandhya Theatre earlier this month, The Indian Express reported.
A trial court had remanded Arjun to 14-day judicial custody earlier in the day.
He had been taken into custody from his residence at around noon and was questioned by the police, The Hindu reported.
The police had on December 5 filed a case against Arjun, his security team and the management of the venue after the death of the 35-year-old woman. The stampede occurred on the evening of December 4.
The case was filed under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt.
Arjun had expressed condolences about the woman’s death and promised to donate Rs 25 lakh to her family as a goodwill gesture, according to The Hindu.
On December 11, he filed a petition in the High Court seeking to quash the first information report against him.
The police said at the time that the theatre where the film premiere took place had failed to inform them that the lead actor and other cast members were going to come there.
They added that when Arjun arrived at the theatre, his personal security team and the crowd tried to enter the premises with him.
Three other persons part of the theatre’s management had already been arrested in connection with the case, The News Minute reported.
The woman and her nine-year-old son present inside the venue felt suffocated after a large number of people entered the venue, The Indian Express had quoted Chikkadpally police station house officer B Raju Naik as saying. The police personnel pulled the woman and her son 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.”
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!