‘Pushpa 2’ stampede: Allu Arjun refutes allegations, says cops didn’t ask him to leave theatre | Hyderabad News – Times of India

He denied claims of a procession and disregarding police orders. Arjun stated he left due to overcrowding, unaware of the later tragedy

HYDERABAD: Hours after chief minister A Revanth Reddy spoke critically against Pushpa 2 actor Allu Arjun for attending the premiere of his movie at Sandhya Theatre despite police denying permission, the actor has said it was nothing but “character assassination by spreading misinformation”.
Both Revanth Reddy and AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi levelled allegations against the actor while speaking about the incident in the assembly.
“I make a movie to make Telugu people’s image rise to new heights. But what is happening is, we among ourselves are pulling down each other,” Arjun rued, while becoming emotional during the hurriedly convened press conference on Saturday night. Arjun called the incident an “accident and no one is responsible for it”.
“There is a lot of misinformation going on, a lot of false allegations, especially character assassination and sabotaging reputation built over years,” he said. He specifically clarified the allegations made in the assembly, without taking the names of Revanth Reddy and Owaisi.
While denying the allegation, Arjun said that when he was watching the premiere, no policeman approached him asking him to leave the theatre. “My management team came and said that there is overcrowding at the theatre and asked me to leave the place, to bring normalcy. It was then I left the place, but my children were still watching the movie. The next morning I came to know that a woman (Revathi) died due to suffocation and her son is in hospital,” Arjun said.
“If I knew about the incident, why would I leave my children at the theatre? I was unaware that an incident took place until the next day,” he clarified.
On the accusations that the actor did not care to visit the ailing boy, Arjun said he immediately wanted to visit Revathi’s family. “But I was told that the family lodged a complaint against me and my legal team advised me not to directly come in contact with the victims’ family. Why would I not meet if such a thing happened? I am legally tied,” the actor said.
The actor denied the allegation made by the CM and police that he entered the theatre by taking out a procession. He said that when he reached the theatre, the waiting policemen were actually giving way for his vehicle, which was caught amid a huge crowd. “Whenever there is overcrowding, it is common for an actor and leader to come out and wave at them, so that they will allow our vehicles to move on. The same thing was done by me on that day,” the Pushpa hero said.