I visited Sandhya theatre with all permissions: Allu Arjun hits back

Hyderabad: "It is absolutely false information that I have visited Sandhya Theatre without permission. When I visited the theatre, the police were clearing the crowd, so it is clear that everything is sorted. If there is no permission, they could have told us and I would returned," said Actor Allu Arjun speaking about Sandhya Theatre stampede during the premiere of Pushpa 2 TheRule .

Actor Allu Arjun on Saturday said the incident in which a woman died and her son was hospitalised at a theatre here where 'Pushpa-2' was screened on December 4 was purely an accident and denied the allegations made by Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on the roadshow.

Hours after Chief Minister Revanth Reddy slammed the actor for holding a roadshow and waving to the crowds at the theatre, without referring to anyone, the 'Pushpa 2' star refuted the allegations and said it was not a procession or a roadshow.

"There is a lot of misinformation that I behaved in a particular way. These are wrong allegations. It's humiliating and a character assassination. There is a lot of misinformation going on, a lot of false allegations, especially character assassination," he told reporters in a press conference.

Describing the death of the woman as an accident, he said he was not blaming anyone as it is an unfortunate incident.

Allu Arjun clarified that there was no road show during his movie premiere show at Sandhya Theatre. "It's a lie that the police came and told me to leave. No police officer said anything to me while I was watching the movie. My wife and children were right next to me. My manager told it is overcrowded outside, so I immediately left. The next day, I found out that this stampede happened, and I was shocked. It is hurting when false accusations are made that I was sitting inside watching a movie even though I knew the incident happened," he said.

"Because I was asked not to meet the Sri Tej, my father visited. I have been getting hourly updates on the health condition of SriTej who got injured at the Sandhya Theatre. Good thing is that he is improving," he said.

According to KIMS hospital, Sritej is maintaining his vital parameters well on his own without any external support of oxygen or inotropes. He continues to tolerate nasogastric feeds well. He had recurrence of intermittent fever spikes for which some investigations have been sent. His neurological condition is static.

A 35-year-old woman died and her eight-year-old son was hospitalised on December 4 during a stampede-like situation at the Sandhya Theatre in Hyderabad when thousands of fans jostled to have a glimpse of the actor at the premiere of the blockbuster 'Pushpa 2'.

Following the incident, the city police registered a case against Allu Arjun, his security team, and the theatre management under different sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at the Chikkadpally police station based on the complaint lodged by the deceased woman's family.

Allu Arjun was arrested by the city police in connection with the death of the woman on December 13. The Telangana High Court granted him a four-week interim bail on the same day and he was released from a prison here on December 14 morning.