Bengaluru police arrest Kannada actor from private resort at Pandalur

COIMBATORE: The Bengaluru police on Friday arrested Kannada film actor Duniya Vijay from a private resort at Pandalur in the Nilgiris, for allegedly obstructing the police from arresting an accused in the Maastigudi tragedy case.
While shooting for a stunt scene for the movie ‘Maastigudi’ in November 2016, two actors, Raghava Uday and Anil Kumar, had jumped from a helicopter along with Duniya Vijay in the Thippagondanahalli reservoir.While the actors drowned in the reservoir as they jumped without any safety gears, Vijay had landed safely as he wore a life vest.
A case was registered against director Naga Shekhar, producer Sundar P Gowda, stunt director Ravi Varma, assistant director Siddharth, unit manager Bharath and helicopter pilot Prakash Biradar. The actor was named as the prime witness in the case.
According to the police, after the producer had failed to appear before the judicial magistrate during the trials, the magistrate has issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) to arrest the producer.
When the Tavarakere police attempted to arrest Sundar about a month ago from Vijay’s residence, the actor obstructed the police from arresting the producer and allowed the accused to escape.
However, Vijay had assured that he would produce Sundar at the police station on the next day morning, a police officer said. When Vijay had failed to keep up his words, the police filed a case against him.
The actor went absconding since then. The actor was arrested under sections 353 (obstructing government official from carrying out duty) and 225 (resistance or obstruction to lawful apprehension of another person) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The actor was taken back to Bengaluru.