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| Balakrishna being taken to the house of the metropolitan magistrate early on Sunday morning. (PTI) |
Hyderabad, June 6: N.T. Rama Rao’s actor-son . Balakrishna was arrested today from his hospital bed and remanded in judicial custody at the hospital itself.
R.P. Singh, the city police commissioner, said this afternoon that his force conducted the early-morning operation on the basis of medical advice and intelligence reports regarding mobilisation of large numbers of Balakrishna fans to obstruct his arrest.
The actor was moved through a backdoor of the hospital in an unregistered vehicle to the house of the fifth metropolitan magistrate, who remanded him in judicial custody. He was brought back within an hour, Singh said.
The commissioner said a manhunt has been launched for three persons involved in the shootout case — K.P. Chowdhary, Shiva Reddy and Balu.
Chowdhary is said to have dropped one of the victims, film producer B. Suresh, at the Apollo hospital. Reddy, a servant at Balakrishna’s house, was a witness. Balu, another servant, was said to be involved in the clean-up after the incident at the actor’s Jubilee Hills bungalow.
This is the second recent violent incident to rock the Telugu film industry. In 2002, upcoming actress Pratyusha was murdered. Though the suspect, boyfriend Siddhartha Reddy, was convicted, recent DNA tests have raised doubts about his involvement.
In the current case, Balakrishna is the only person to have been taken into custody till now. There are several other co-accused whose names are expected to appear in the chargesheet.
Balakrishna has been charged under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 201 (destroying evidence), besides sections 25 and 27 of the arms act. The punishment is three to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
Both Balakrishna and his wife, Vasundhara, have been issued showcause notices as to why their gun licences should not be cancelled, Singh said.
According to Balakrishna’s reported submission, he had a heated argument with Suresh and assistant producer Satyanarayana Chowdhary over the 100-day celebrations of his film, Lakshmi Narasimha.
Balakrishna apparently wanted the producer to compensate some of his fans who, charged with emotion, had committed suicide in the run-up to the film’s release. Suresh had refused.
This perhaps led to the altercation during which Suresh is said to have slashed at Balakrishna with a paper knife, injuring his left thumb. “The injury is very minor and does not warrant a shootout,” Singh said.
The commissioner added that the film was released in 277 centres and was to be run for 100 days. Balakrishna’s fans, however, complained that the film was celebrating 100 days only at 80 theatres.
The actor and the producer allegedly clashed over the point, “followed by which I drew a gun from one of the drawers and shot at them. I do not remember how many rounds”, Balakrishna is said to have told the police.
Vasundhara has reportedly said in her statement that when she entered the room, both Suresh and Satyanarayana had pounced on her husband and were beating him up.
The police have found four bullets at the site — three stuck in the wall and one in a table. Balakrishna had allegedly emptied a single round of six bullets.
Suresh was hit in the left kidney by a bullet that also damaged his spleen. The other bullet had burst Satyanarayana’s liver.
The police have moved against the authorities of Apollo hospital for not informing them when the two injured persons were admitted on the night of June 3.
According to the hospital’s version as put out by the police, Suresh had entered the hospital on his own. He screamed he was shot and collapsed. He was rushed to the intensive care unit and later operated on. Satyanarayana was brought in unconscious and admitted.
Film industry personalities are discussing a compromise that could be struck between the victims and the families of the accused.
Suresh and Satyanarayana have not made any statement to the police yet. Their families, too, said in a statement that they had not accused Balakrishna of any crime.
Srinivas Chowdhary, the son of Satyanarayana, said he had not filed any written complaint with the police.