The Madras High Court today offered actor Kamal Haasan relief by saying that he need not appear for police inquiry at the EVP Film City, the place where a terrible accident occurred during the filming of the actor’s upcoming flick, Indian 2. The terrible accident, caused by a crane crash, had left three people dead and over 10 injured on February 19 this year. Granting the relief, the court said that the actor could instead appear at the Central Crime Branch office for inquiry.
The court was hearing a plea by the actor, praying for directions to the Tamil Nadu police, asking it not to harass him in the case pertaining to the mishap that occurred on the sets of Indian 2 on February 19 this year. The police, which has already arrested the crane driver in connection with the accident, had issued summons to 24 unit members, including the director of the film, Shankar, and the lead actor of the film, Kamal Haasan, to be present at the EVP Film City, the venue of the accident, on March 18 for inquiry.
It was in response to this summons that Kamal filed the plea today. In his plea, the actor claimed that the cops were harassing him despite the cooperation he had been offering them and pointed out that he had co-operated for over three hours with the police on March 3. Alleging that the police were acting under political pressure, Kamal said that the cops were forcing him to enact the sequence of events on the day of the tragedy at the accident site. This, he said, was causing him mental trauma as he still hadn’t got over the tragedy.
The police, for their part, said that they had issued summons to 24 people in the case as they were eye-witnesses and that they couldn’t exempt Kamal Haasan because he was the lead actor of the film. Also, the police said they were only following protocol and that there was no political motive behind summoning him.
