Andhra Pradesh HC restrains police from taking coercive action against Director Ram Gopal Varma

Amaravati: In a breather to filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday restrained the state police from taking coercive steps in cases registered against him in the state, for a week.

Several cases have been registered in Andhra Pradesh against Varma accusing him of posting morphed photographs of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan and their family members in an "indecent" manner on social media.

Justice Harinath N posted the matter to December 9 for hearing, granting relief until then to the filmmaker.

Varma’s advocate Rajagopallavan Tayi argued that pictures posted on social media platform 'X' are posters in promotion of a movie he made. The Director committed no offence and the complainants are not aggrieved persons to lodge a complaint.

Tayi told PTI that on behalf of his client, he moved the HC seeking it to club all the cases against Varma and treat them as one. The petition is likely to come up on December 11.

Prakasam district police served two notices to Varma asking him to appear before them for questioning in connection with the case against him.

However, Varma failed to show up, but expressed his willingness to appear "digitally" before the authorities.

Meanwhile, Varma in a press conference in Hyderabad on Monday pulled up a section of media, saying it is creating hype over the issue and speculating that he was avoiding arrest by absconding.

He further said no one can control social media reach.