Amaravati: A court in Andhra Pradesh’s Annamayya district Friday sent actor and YSR Congress Party leader Posani Krishna Murali to judicial custody for 14 days for making derogatory comments against Deputy Chief Minister and actor Pawan Kalyan.
The court in Railway Koduru pronounced its order around 5 a.m. after hearing the arguments from both sides for more than seven hours.
Posani, who has been charged with promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of caste, was later shifted to Kadapa jail.
Police arrested the 66-year-old from his residence in Hyderabad Wednesday night and produced him before a magistrate on Thursday night after questioning him at Obulavaripalle Police Station.
The arguments, which began around 9.30 p.m., continued till 5 a.m. Posani’s counsel, P. Sudhakar Reddy, pleaded to the court to release him on bail, but the magistrate turned down the appeal and sent him to judicial custody till March 12.
The actor was booked February 24 on a complaint by Jana Sena leader Jogineni Mani, who accused him of making derogatory comments against Jana Sena president and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan. The complainant also alleged that Posani made remarks against a particular caste and thus tried to promote enmity between castes, film fans and political parties.
A case was booked against Posani under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 196, 353 (2), 111 r/w 3 (5).
After bringing Posani from Hyderabad to Railway Kuduru, the police questioned him for more than nine hours. Annamayya district Superintendent of Police Vidyasagar Naidu questioned the actor after he did not cooperate during the questioning by the circle inspector. The actor was medically examined by a government doctor in the police station.
Similar cases were booked against Posani at different police stations in the state for alleged derogatory comments against Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan and Minister Nara Lokesh.
In November 2024, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) in Andhra Pradesh registered a case against Posani on a complaint by Bandaru Vamsikrishna, a leader of Telugu Yuvatha, the youth wing of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
The complainant said that Posani made false allegations and defamatory comments against Chandrababu Naidu during a press conference in September. He alleged that the actor’s comments tarnished the image of the Chief Minister. He also claimed that the comments created discord between groups.
Posani, who also served as AP Film Development Corporation Chairman when YSRCP was in power, was booked under sections 111, 196, 353, 299, 341, and 336 (3) of BNS.
