Sandhya Theatre stampede: HC grants protection from arrest to Pushpa 2 producers

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court granted relief to producers Yelamanchili Ravishankar and Yerneni Naveen of the film Pushpa-2 in connection with the stampede incident at Sandhya Theatre.

The court allowed the investigation to continue but ordered that the producers should not be arrested. This decision followed a petition filed by the producers seeking to dismiss the case registered by the Chikkadapally police after a woman’s death during the stampede.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Justice K. Sujana listened to arguments from the petitioners' lawyer, N. Naveen Kumar, who asserted that there was no connection between the incident and the producers. He argued that none of the allegations in the FIR applied to them, highlighting that actor Allu Arjun’s arrival at the theatre had been communicated to both theatre staff and police officials. Senior officers, including an ACP and DCP, had visited the theatre on the day of the incident to assess security measures.

The judge issued interim orders preventing the arrest of the producers while directing them to cooperate with the investigation. The police were instructed to file a counter and issue notices to the complainant.