Attack on Allu Arjun’s house: Screenshots claiming BRS involvement go viral; BRS leaders rubbish claims

Hyderabad: Pushpa 2 The Rule actor Allu Arjun’s house was vandalised on Sunday evening by protesters demanding justice for Revathi’s family—the victims of the Sandhya stampede. In that context, two screenshots allegedly linking two BRS leaders to the vandalism have gone viral.

One screenshot allegedly shows a BRS leader informing a WhatsApp group to be prepared for ‘breaking news’ regarding Allu Arjun, and the other shows another BRS leader ‘proving’ that one of the protestors is a Congress member.

Those sharing the screenshots claim that this proves that the attack on Allu Arjun’s house was premeditated.

On Sunday at 4:45 pm, six people holding placards rushed towards the residence of actor Allu Arjun in Jubilee Hills. Shouting slogans, one of them scaled the compound wall and started throwing tomatoes. On receiving the information, Jubilee Hills Police reached the spot, took six people into custody and later released them on bail.

What are the contents of the screenshots?

The screenshots allegedly show messages from BRS leader Krishank at 3 pm saying, “Prepare all our SM warriors Sensational breaking in next two hours. Use hashtag #WestandwithAllu Arjun #StopCheapPoliticsOnALLUARJUN”.

In another screenshot, at 4 pm, some images were allegedly shared by the spokesperson of BRS Putta Vishnuvardhan Reddy claiming that one of the protestors has links to chief minister A Revanth Reddy.

A now-deleted post sharing the screenshots on X stated, “The gang that attacked Allu Arjun’s house was sent by KTR. That program was led by Krishank. The BRS social media was alerted at 3 in the afternoon by KTR. If the attack on Allu Arjun’s house was done between 4 pm and 5 pm then how did Krishank give the information by 3 pm?” (Archive)

Similar claims can be seen here and here. (Archive 1, Archive 2)

WhatsApp group in screenshots does not exist, says BRS

BRS leaders denied the allegations, stating that the WhatsApp group in the screenshots does not exist.

Reacting to the viral screenshot, Krishank wrote on X, “Nice try but you missed one point… The profile picture you used is only on Twitter not on my WhatsApp,” pointing out that the profile image used on the viral screenshot was different from his WhatsApp profile picture.

Speaking to NewsMeter, Krishank said that the screenshot was edited as the WhatsApp group in the screenshots does not exist.

He said, “I made a post on the incident exposing one of the people who attacked Allu Arjun’s house at 8 pm as I found out about the issue two hours after it happened. I did not forward images of Srinivas Reddy to any journalists as well. Those who are on my contact list can see that I have had the same WhatsApp profile image for the last year which is different from what they have used to edit the screenshots.”

Party leader Krishank shared images of one of the protesters on December 22 at 7:59 pm on social media and identified him as a Congress party member, Reddy Srinivas. He wrote, “Reddy Srinivas who attacked Allu Arjun's residence is not a student leader of Osmania University. He is a close aide of CM Revanth and was Kodangal Congress candidate of 2019 ZPTC polls.” (Archive)

BRS spokesperson Putta Vishnuvardhan Reddy also told NewsMeter that the person who attacked Allu Arjun’s house was a Youth Congress leader from the chief minister’s constituency. “To cover this up they are trying to divert the attention and sling mud at the BRS party. The screenshot that they are circulating is an edited picture,” he said.

Taking to X, Vishnuvardhan wrote, “The below fake screenshot with fake name “BRS Twitter wing”, fake timestamp & fake messages are created by Congress to throw mud on @KTRBRS Garu & BRS SM Team. By the way, fyi, the real Whats App Group name is “BRS Twitter Wing” (with a Capital ‘W’ and India Flag) and there were no such messages exchanged. (sic)” (Archive)