The court has deferred further proceedings in multiple cases filed against him across the state until 9 December. The court has also ordered that no coercive action be taken against Varma until the next hearing.
Published Dec 02, 2024 | 5:13 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 02, 2024 | 5:13 PM
Ram Gopal Varma. (X)
Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday, 2 December, granted temporary relief to director Ram Gopal Varma, in connection with cases accusing him of morphing photos of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan and their families.
According to reports, the court has deferred further proceedings in multiple cases filed against him across the state until 9 December. The court has also ordered that no coercive action be taken against Varma until the next hearing.
In early November, a case was booked against the director at Maddipadu police station in Prakasam district for allegedly posting morphed photographs of the leaders in an “indecent” manner on social media.
Following this, the Andhra Pradesh police summoned the director for investigation, however, he did not appear for the questioning and stated that he would appear digitally.
On 25 November, the Andhra Pradesh police’s two teams were on the lookout for Ram Gopal Varma in Hyderabad and Chennai.
According to a PTI report, Varma’s lawyer told reporters that the director had expressed willingness to appear “digitally” before the Andhra Police in connection with the case.
The police however refuted the requests and Prakasham SP AR Damodar noted, “Without turning up for the investigation, how can Varma say that he would attend the online probe? The police teams are combing every place where Varma is suspected to be present.”
According to a TOI report, Ram Gopal Varma previously filed a petition to quash the case against him at Maddipadu police station and requested an interim order to prevent coercive action.
The high court rejected his request, stating it could not issue orders similar to bail. The court advised the director to file a bail application. After the court denied interim relief, Varma filed anticipatory bail petitions for all related cases.
Meanwhile, the director took to X, to share his response on the cases filed against him.
In a series of posts on X, he questioned, how a post put up one year ago, hurt the sentiment much later. He further claimed, “What is even more strange is that 4 different persons from 4 different districts of Andhra Pradesh have filed cases on me in the same way and the media is reporting that 5 more have been filed thus making it a total of 9 cases so far and all of them have been filed within a span of 4 to 5 days. So is the intention to make me run around in a continuous harassment ?”
Ram Gopal Varma also claimed that he was not absconding, but was finishing his film work.
MY TAKE ON MY CASE—RGV@ndtv @IndiaToday @TimesNow @republic @TV9Telugu @NtvTeluguLive @sakshinews @tv5newsnow @BBCWorld @DDNewslive @ZeeNews
1.
Sorry to disappoint all those people who got hugely entertained by my so called absconding and the police teams trying to hunt me…
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) November 28, 2024
(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula)
