Balakrishna remanded to judicial custody

Telugu film star N Balakrishna, who was allegedly involved in a shooting incident leading to serious injuries to a producer and his associate, was remanded to a two-week's judicial custody by a city court on Monday.

Balakrishna, son of legendary hero and former chief minister late N T Rama Rao, was driven in an ambulance to the court of the Fifth Metropolitan Magistrate M Gandhi who remanded him to judicial custody till June 21 and directed the police to get the actor examined by government doctors at the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) hospital.

Forty-four-year-old Balakrishna, who had allegedly opened fire at producer Bellamkonda Suresh and an astrologer friend Satyanarayana Choudhary following an altercation over financial matters, has been undergoing treatment at a private hospital where he had got himself admitted hours after the shooting incident on Thursday .

Balakrishna, who is also the brother-in-law of former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, had confessed before the police yesterday that he had opened fire at the producer in self-defence after he was attacked with a knife.

However, Choudhary, who was seriously injured in the firing, told the police that the film star fired indiscriminately without any provocation.

Clad in a white dress, Balakrishna, who was taken to the waiting ambulance in a wheel-chair, declined to talk to the media at CARE Hospital where frenzied fans have been staging demonstrations for the last three days to express solidarity with their hero.

He was then driven to the court with police escort. His lawyers urged the court to permit him to continue to stay in CARE Hospital on the ground that he needed experts' attention.

However, with the police insisting on the actor being examined by a panel of government doctors to ascertain the exact nature of his injuries, the judge asked the police to take him to NIMs for medical examination.

If the doctors at NIMS refuse to treat him, then the actor could be taken back to CARE Hospital, the court said.

Meanwhile, police is closely examining the contradictory versions on the shooting incident that occurred at the film star's residence where the victims were having a meeting with him to sort out financial matters pertaining to the block-buster Lakshmi Narasimha starring Balakrishna.

Incidentally, the film was produced by Suresh who is now battling for life at Apollo Hospital and his bullet-ridden left kidney had to be removed by the doctors.