'Maastigudi' director, producer, four others charged over actors' drowning

[email protected] (CD Network)
April 28, 2017

Bengaluru, Apr 28: Nearly six months after two stunt actors drowned in the Thippagondanahalli reservoir during the shooting of Kannada film ‘Maastigudi,’ police have formally charged the producer, director, stunt director and three others.

mastigudiThe jurisdictional Taver¬e¬k¬e¬re police filed a 400-page charge sheet before the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court in Magadi, about 50 kilometres west of Bengaluru, earlier this week. The film is scheduled for release on Friday. Criminal negligence was found on the part of the film’s producer Sundar P Gowdru, director Nagshekar, stunt director Ravi Verma, assistant director Siddarth, unit manager Bharath and the pilot of the helicopter Prakash Biradar. The charge sheet has fixed culpability on each accused according to the roles and responsibilities assigned to them.

The charge sheet lists 78 witnesses, including several BWSSB officials who stated that the film’s crew violated the conditional permission given for the shoot, local residents who came to watch the shoot and rescue workers who fished out the bodies after a 48-hour search. The charge sheet states that the deceased actors — Anil Kumar (37) and Raghavendra Uday (31) — were bare-chested and didn’t wear any life jackets, while the lead actor, Duniya Vijay, had worn one, which saved him from drowning. Shortly before the shoot, the deceased actors had given interviews to news channels and expressed fears about their lack of expertise in swimming.

Kumar and Uday — known for portraying negative roles on-screen — had jumped off the helicopter along with Vijay from a height of about 60 feet on November 7, 2016. Moments later, the two actors began to drown in the 40-foot-deep lake but Vijay managed to swim to safety. A?motorboat kept on standby to deal with any emergency could not start because of a technical snag and failed to rescue the actors.

Vijay has been made a witness. The complainant in the case is the Assistant Executive Engineer of the TG Halli reservoir. The accused were booked under IPC 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) which attracts imprisonment up to 10 years. The accused were arrested but released on bail later. The investigating officer is Anil Kumar, police inspector from the district crime branch.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 14,2020

Mumbai, Apr 14: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope has thanked Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan for providing 25,000 personal protective equipment for health workers.

Khan on Monday provided the personal protective equipment (PPE) kits to the frontline medical staff in Maharashtra fighting to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic in the state.

Tope took to Twitter to thank the actor for the help.

Many thanks Mr. Shah Rukh Khan for your kind contribution of 25,000 PPE kits. This will go a long way in supporting our fight against COVID19 & protecting our frontline medical care team @iamsrk @MeerFoundation @CMOMaharashtra," he tweeted.

The actor and his wife Gauri Khan recently offered their four-storey personal office space for treating COVID-19 patients.

Khan had earlier announced various initiatives to help the country during the crisis.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 9,2020

New Delhi, Jan 9: A Delhi court Thursday directed the makers of the Deepika Padukone starer feature film 'Chhapaak' to give credit to acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal’s lawyer in the movie.

Additional Civil Judge Pankaj Sharma said it was necessary that advocate Aparna Bhat's contribution is acknowledged.

"This Court is of the considered view that facts are indicative that the plea of the plaintiff for interim injunction is well-founded and it is necessary that her contribution be acknowledged by providing on the slide on the actual footage and the images, the line 'Aparna Bhat continues to fight the cases of sexual and physical violence against women' during the screening of the film.

"The said line on screen maybe with a rider that the same is with the court order," the judge said.

Advocate Bhat filed the application saying that despite representing Agarwal in courts for several years and helping in the movie-making, she was not given credit in the movie.

She said the filmmakers took her help in the entire process of writing and shooting the movie, but did not give the credit.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
coastaldigest.com news network
August 3,2020

Mumbai, Aug 3: In a significant statement, Mumbai Police chief Parambar Singh on Monday said that actor Sushant Singh Rajput was “emotionally disturbed” after the death of his ex-manager Disha Salian.

“When he saw his name being linked to Disha Salian’s death on social media, he was emotionally disturbed. He had met Disha Salian only once, he even asked his advocate who she was,” Singh told reporters in Mumbai.

According to him, Sushant Singh Rajput was conscious about what was appearing about him on social media.

Singh also rejected allegations that Mumbai police had not sealed the Bandra duplex flat where the actor ended his life.

“The flat was sealed on June 14 itself (the day of the suicide), the next day, on June 15, forensic teams and doctors visited the flat. Only after that, the flat was unsealed,” Singh said.

The police chief also ruled out that a party was held in the flat on June 13 evening. “We have the CCTV footage of June 13 and 14,” he said.

On the quarantining of Bihar IPS officer Vinay Tiwari in Mumbai, Singh said that he does not have knowledge of this. “The BMC should have knowledge of this. They look into quarantine issues, we do not,” he said.

Singh said that the investigations are ongoing and so far 56 statements have been recorded. “We are in touch with experts, doctors,” he said.

On the bank accounts, he said that during their investigations it has come to light that Rs 4.5 crore was there in the form of deposits.  “We have recorded the statement of his current chartered accountant, former chartered accountant, we have checked the bank statements, ledger,” he said, adding that investigations are still underway.

According to the FIR filed by Sushant Singh Rajput’s father Krishna Kumar Singh in Patna, his son’s money was swindled by his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her family members.

“The Mumbai Police is investigating the case thoroughly, from all possible angles, including his family members, friends, doctors and others, besides the details of the financial transactions of Sushant’s bank accounts,” Singh said.

To a query on the name of a prominent Maharashtra politician being dragged in social media, Singh categorically said that the investigations have not shown any such thing.

Singh also said that the Mumbai police had “initially recorded” the statement of the family members. “The statements of father and sisters were recorded on June 16,” he said, however, added that they have not responded to requests later on.

He said that the Mumbai Police has extended all cooperation to the family. “Sushant Singh Rajput’s sister and brother-in-law met our joint commissioner of police. They wanted to go to the Pune bungalow in Pawna area. An assistant commissioner of police accompanied them,” he said.

Who is Disha Salian?

Disha Salian hails from Karnataka’s coastal district of Udupi. She was born in 1992 into a business family background. She reportedly migrated to Mumbai with her family at an early age. 

After completing her education, she worked in the Times of India Group for more than three years. She went on to become the celebrity manager at Media Vantage.

Apart from Sushant, she had great links with many popular celebrities like Bharti Singh, Alisha Panwar, and others.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.