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Indian actor Allu Arjun was arrested on Friday in connection with a stampede during a special screening of his film Pushpa 2 in the southern city Hyderabad earlier this month.
In the stampede at Sandhya Theater on December 4, a woman named M Revathi died and her child was injured.
Revathi, 39, attended the screening with her husband M Bhaskar, their son and seven-year-old daughter.
Arjun arrived at the theater around 9.30 pm local time, entered through the main entrance and spent 15-20 minutes outside, NDTV reported.
As news of his presence spread, hundreds of fans flocked to see, causing the gates to collapse. Attempts by his security team to suppress the crowd reportedly only made the situation worse.
Police have filed a case against Arjun, his security team and the theater management, citing lack of crowd control measures and charging them with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and voluntarily causing hurt, said Akshansh Yadav, deputy commissioner of police. Indian Express.
On December 11, Arjun moved the Telangana High Court seeking to quash the case. He was arrested before his plea could be heard on Friday afternoon.
After Revatha’s death, the film’s producers, Mythri Movie Makers, expressed their condolences and promised support to her family.
“We are extremely devastated by the tragic incident during last night’s screening,” they said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and the young child undergoing treatment.
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“We are committed to standing by them and providing all possible support in this difficult time. With deep sadness.”
Arjun expressed grief over Revathi’s death and pledged Rs 2,500,000 (£23,300) to the victim’s family and promised to cover the medical expenses of his injured son.
“A very unfortunate incident took place at Sandhya cinema. We are extremely sorry for that,” he said at the film’s success celebration on December 7.
“When I heard about it on December 5, I was in shock. It took me hours to process it and respond to the incident. I couldn’t psychologically process it. It took me about 10 hours. We all fainted when we heard the news. Sukumar became extremely emotional.”
Sukumar is the director Pushpa 2.
Arjun reportedly complied with his arrest on Friday morning, but told police he was embarrassed that they entered his bedroom unannounced. The actor was reportedly unable to change his clothes or finish his breakfast before being taken into police custody.
His father, producer Allu Aravind, accompanied him to the local police station.
After giving his statement, Arjun was taken to Osmania Hospital for examination and was to be produced in court later.