Actor Allu Arjun will likely be released from Chanchalguda prison only around 6 am on Saturday morning, despite the Telangana High Court granting him four-day interim bail on Friday.
According to sources, the jail authorities had not received the bail order until Friday night, which is why the actor’s release was delayed.
Arjun was arrested on Friday morning from his house in Hyderabad in connection with a stampede at the premiere of his film, Pushpa 2, on December 4.
He was remanded to 14-day judicial custody by a lower court, but while he was being taken to prison, the Telangana High Court granted him interim bail.
The stampede at Hyderabad’s Sandhya Theatre had left 39-year-old M Revathi dead and her nine-year-old son in critical condition.
The actor was arrested based on a complaint by her husband M Bhaskar, who detailed how people were pushed to the ground as the theatre was being vacated for the film’s cast to enter.
However, on Friday, Bhaskar told reporters that Arjun was not at fault. “Allu Arjun is not at fault for coming to the theatre. I am ready to withdraw my case,” he said.
Speaking to The Indian Express on Friday evening, Bhaskar had said, “I believe the law should take its course. I really don’t know what to say about Allu Arjun’s arrest. I am worried about my son right now.”
Friday also saw an exchange between the Sandhya Theatre management and the police. The former claim they had submitted a letter seeking police bandobast for the premiere.
The police, however, responded that they receive many requests for bandobast citing visits by political personalities, celebrities and religious programmes. Police said the organisers did not meet any officer in person and “simply submitted the letter in the inward section”.
“He (Arjun) came to the theatre, came out from the sunroof of his vehicle and started waving to the public gathered there. This gesture attracted a lot of the public towards the theatre’s 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 a large public gathering, but they didn’t act on it, and Allu Arjun was there inside the theatre for more than two hours,” the police statement said.
“Therefore, it is clear that adequate police bandobast was in place, (and) it was his actions which led to this unfortunate incident, in which a woman died, and her son is still unconscious on a ventilator even after nine days of the incident,” it added.
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